Published by Good Press, 2019

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      EAN 4057664651662

Table of Contents

       BEL-AMI

       CHAPTER I.

       POVERTY

       CHAPTER II.

       MADAME FORESTIER

       CHAPTER III.

       FIRST ATTEMPTS

       CHAPTER IV.

       DUROY LEARNS SOMETHING

       CHAPTER V.

       THE FIRST INTRIGUE

       CHAPTER VI.

       A STEP UPWARD

       CHAPTER VII.

       A DUEL WITH AN END

       CHAPTER VIII.

       DEATH AND A PROPOSAL

       CHAPTER IX.

       MARRIAGE

       CHAPTER X.

       JEALOUSY

       CHAPTER XI.

       MADAME WALTER TAKES A HAND

       CHAPTER XII.

       A MEETING AND THE RESULT

       CHAPTER XIII.

       MADAME DE MARELLE

       CHAPTER XIV.

       THE WILL

       CHAPTER XV.

       SUZANNE

       CHAPTER XVI.

       DIVORCE

       CHAPTER XVII.

       THE FINAL PLOT

       CHAPTER XVIII.

       ATTAINMENT

BEL-AMI

       Table of Contents

CHAPTER I.

       Table of Contents

POVERTY

       Table of Contents

      After changing his five-franc piece Georges Duroy left the restaurant. He twisted his mustache in military style and cast a rapid, sweeping glance upon the diners, among whom were three saleswomen, an untidy music-teacher of uncertain age, and two women with their husbands.

      When he reached the sidewalk, he paused to consider what route he should take. It was the twenty-eighth of June and he had only three francs in his pocket to last him the remainder of the month. That meant two dinners and no lunches, or two lunches and no dinners, according to choice. As he pondered upon this unpleasant state of affairs, he sauntered down Rue Notre Dame de Lorette, preserving his military air and carriage, and rudely jostled the people upon the streets in order to clear a path for himself. He appeared to be hostile to the passers-by, and even to the houses, the entire city.

      Tall, well-built, fair, with blue eyes, a curled mustache, hair naturally wavy and parted in the middle, he recalled the hero of the popular romances.

      It was one of those sultry, Parisian evenings when not a breath of air is stirring; the sewers exhaled poisonous gases and the restaurants the disagreeable odors of cooking and of kindred smells. Porters in their shirt-sleeves, astride their chairs, smoked their pipes at the carriage gates, and pedestrians strolled leisurely along, hats in hand.

      When Georges Duroy reached the boulevard he halted again, undecided as to which road to choose. Finally he turned toward the Madeleine and followed the tide of people.

      The large, well-patronized cafes tempted Duroy, but were he to drink only two glasses of beer in an evening, farewell to the meager supper the following night! Yet he said to himself: "I will take a glass at the Americain. By Jove, I am thirsty."

      He glanced at men seated at the tables, men who could afford to slake