French literature summaries - 2021

Short summary - Clochette
Guy de Maupassant

Aunt Clochette was an old seamstress who came to mend linen. She was tall, lean, hairy, and limped greatly. To the boy, the son of the hostess, she told all kinds of stories about the events in the village. According to her stories, one could judge that she had a generous, magnanimous heart, like many women bypassed by fate.

Once Aunt Clochette died suddenly. The doctor said that she was his first patient. She, a beautiful girl, was seventeen years old. At that time, a handsome young man came here to work as an assistant to Uncle Graby's teacher. Auntie Clochette ("lame") was then called Hortense. She fell in love with the teacher's assistant and agreed to a first date with him in a school attic filled with hay. Suddenly the attic door opened and the school teacher appeared on the threshold. In the darkness of the large attic, he saw only the assistant teacher. Hortense crawled to the side, and then jumped down from the skylight. The doctor brought the unfortunate girl to him. She had three fractures on her right leg. The doctor called people for help, called the parents and composed a story that she was run over by a carriage in front of his house.

It was her only love, a victim of selfless devotion. She died a virgin, martyr, noblest creature.