The French writer, Guy de Maupassant, was one of the world's greatest writers of short stories. At the same time, he was one of the world's most sad and tragic figures. As a celebrity and writer, he had it all, yet in reality, what he had didn't satisfy. Within a decade, he rose from obscurity to fame as his stories were published in newspapers and journals around the world. His name became a household word. With fame came the trappings of success: a yacht in the Mediterranean, a large house on the Norman Coast, and his luxurious flat in Paris. One biographer put it, "Critics praised him; men admired him; and women worshiped him."