«Bertha» by Guy de Maupassant

Laying the foundations for films, such as ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ starring Jack Nicholson, ‘Bertha’ is a study on mental illness.While the narrator visits his old friend, Dr Bonnet, the doctor asks him to wait while he visits a patient. The patient is Bertha, a woman who was once young and beautiful but with no way of communicating with the outside world. Rightly or wrongly, Dr Bonnet subjects her to a series of experiments before her family decides there’s an answer to her problems. A haunting and tragic short story from the pen of one of the fathers of the genre, ‘Bertha’ is the perfect introduction to Guy de Maupassant's authorship. Hailed as one of the pioneers of the modern short story, Henri Ren Albert Guy de Maupassant (1850 — 1893) was born in Dieppe, France. After his parents’ divorce, Maupassant was cared for by his mother who had a passion for literature.

During his secondary education, he was introduced to the acclaimed novelist, Gustave Flaubert, who was to play a prominent part in Maupassant’s literary career.

The Franco-Prussian War saw the author enlist in the Navy, and his experiences influenced many of his books, including ‘Boule de Suif.’ Flaubert was to take him under his wing after the war, introducing him to realist and naturalist authors, such as Émile Zola and Ivan Turgenev.