Guy de Maupassant 
Strong as Death 

Like all of Guy de Maupassant’s work, ‘Strong as Death’ (1889) is a poignant and haunting tale. It is a tale of love, life, death, and the mystery of the human heart; a tale of an affair of the heart that cannot stand the light of day — a profane love that lasts a lifetime, and haunts from beyond the grave.

‘Strong as Death’ is great fun and the society portrait works well. The novel focuses on the narcissistic sentimentality in the obsessive romantic love between Olivier Bertin and Madame de Guilleroy.