The NecklacebyGuy de MaupassantThe Necklace(1884) is a famous short story and morality tale that is widely read in classroomsthroughout the world.The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes areborn, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no expectations, noway of being known, understood, loved, married by any rich and distinguished man; soshe let herself be married to a little clerk of the Ministry of Public Instruction.She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was unhappy as if shehad really fallen from a higher station; since with women there is neither caste nor rank,for beauty, grace and charm take the place of family and birth. Natural ingenuity, instinctfor what is elegant, a supple mind are their sole hierarchy, and often make of women ofthe people the equals of the very greatest ladies.Mathilde suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born to enjoy all delicacies and all luxuries.She was distressed at the poverty of her dwelling, at the bareness of the walls, at theshabby chairs, the ugliness of the curtains. All those things, of which another woman ofher rank would never even have been conscious, tortured her and made her angry. Thesight of the little Breton peasant who did her humble housework aroused in herdespairing regrets and bewildering dreams. She thought of silent antechambers hungwith Oriental tapestry, illumined by tall bronze candelabra, and of two great footmen inknee breeches who sleep in the big armchairs, made drowsy by the oppressive heat ofthe stove. She thought of long reception halls hung with ancient silk, of the daintycabinets containing priceless curiosities and of the little coquettish perfumed reception