Guy de Maupassant is a master of the short story, and L'inutile beauté is one of his finest, most unsettling works. It’s a quick read, but it leaves a lasting chill.

The Story

The story opens with Count de Mascaret shocking his dinner guests by arguing that beauty is a useless, even dangerous, quality. His wife, the Countess, is famously and breathtakingly beautiful—so his words feel like a public attack. We soon learn why. The Count is consumed by a maddening jealousy. Among the Countess's seven children, he is convinced that one is not his. He doesn't know which one, and this uncertainty has eaten away at him for years. In a desperate bid for peace, he confronts her, demanding to know the truth. What follows is a tense, psychological duel. The Countess’s response is a masterstroke of manipulation and cruelty that turns his own torment against him, leaving him—and the reader—questioning everything.

Why You Should Read It

Forget stuffy period dramas. This story is raw, modern, and brutally insightful about marriage. Maupassant doesn't give us heroes and villains; he gives us two deeply flawed people trapped in a gilded cage. The Count’s jealousy is monstrous, but you understand the agony of his suspicion. The Countess’s beauty is her weapon and her prison. The real horror isn't in a dramatic reveal, but in the quiet, psychological torture they inflict on each other. Maupassant shows us how love can curdle into something possessive and hateful, and how a single secret can become a poison that ruins lives from the inside out. It’s a dark, fascinating look at the power dynamics between men and women in a society that treated women as ornaments.

Final Verdict

This is perfect for anyone who loves a story that gets under your skin. If you enjoy psychological tension more than action, and complex characters over clear-cut morals, you’ll devour this. It’s a brilliant entry point into classic French literature because it feels so immediate and human. You’ll finish it in an hour, but you’ll be thinking about the Count’s tormented face and the Countess’s cold smile for much longer. A small, perfect, and deeply disturbing gem.