There are some delightful places in this world which have a sensual charm for the eyes. One loves them with a physical love. We people who are attracted by the countryside cherish fond memories of certain springs, certain woods, certain ponds, certain hills, which have become familiar sights and can touch our hearts like happy events. Sometimes indeed the memory goes back towards a forest glade, or a spot on a river bank or an orchard in blossom, glimpsed only once on a happy day, but preserved in our heart.

ˈsɑ̃] ; 5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a popular 19th-century French writer considered one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of the form's finest exponents. The story "Boule de Suif" ("Ball of Fat" 1880) is often accounted his masterpiece. On January 2 1892 Maupassant tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat and was committed to the celebrated private asylum of Esprit Blanche at Passy in Paris where he died on July 6 1893.

Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (French pronunciation: ​[gi d(ə) mo. Many of the stories are set during the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s and several describe the futility of war and the innocent civilians who caught in the conflict emerge changed. The story "Boule de Suif" ("Ball of Fat" 1880) is often accounted his masterpiece.