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French writer, Guy de Maupassant, (1850 -1893) is widely regarded as “the father of the modern short story.” His body of work contains 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books, and one volume of poetry. The year 1880 welcomed his first published and his most highly regarded story, Boule de Suif (The Dumpling). A protégé of French novelist, Gustave Flaubert, author of literary masterpiece, Madame Bovary (1857), Maupassant is ranked alongside Russian writer, Anton Chekov, (The Seagull and The Cherry Orchard) in terms of his contribution to the short-story form. Many of his short stories have been televised more than a century after his death; others have made their way into film. His works have been praised or used as inspiration by literary giants from Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, to English novelist, Somerset Maugham to American-British author, Henry James. In his autobiography, Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is, renowned German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, praised Maupassant for his profound human insights.