The dead hand

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The Hand of the Dead is a fantastic story by the French writer Guy de Maupassant about the severed, black hand of a criminal who was executed long ago. It was Maupassant's first printed work and first appeared in 1875 under a pseudonym as La main d'écorché .

background

La Main d'écorché published Guy de Maupassant in 1875 under his rower nickname Joseph Prunier in the magazine Almanach Lorrain de Pont-à-Mousson . He later revised it and included it in his book of short stories, Tales from Day and Night , under the title Die Hand ; it can be found in Volume 7, The Inheritance .

action

The first-person narrator tells of his friend Louis, who has a visit from his schoolmates one evening. His childhood friend Pierre also storms in that evening, excitedly talking about a dead hand that he claims to have acquired. When Louis visits his friend the next day, he used his hand as a bell handle. When the homeowner complained about it, Pierre hung his hand on the doorbell above his sleeping alcove. The next morning his friend's servant appeared excitedly at Louis and reported that Louis had been murdered. Although it turned out that the friend was still alive, he had strangle marks on his neck that matched the narrow dead hand. He became insane about it and passed away after a short time.

Text output

  • La Main d'écorché , In: Maupassant, Contes et nouvelles , texte établi et annoté par Louis Forestier, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, éditions Gallimard, 1974 ( ISBN 978 2 07 010 805 3 ) and Stuttgart, Klett, n.d. ISBN 3 -12-592559-2
  • The dead hand. The Tellier House and other short stories . Transferred and introduced by Ernst Sander. Original illustrations by Christian Broutin. Train, leisure library. (around 1975)
  • The hand of the dead and other fantastic stories . Published by Kalju Kirde. Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp (st 1035, Fantastic Library ). 1985 ISBN 3-518-37540-7

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Guy de Maupassant: The Tellier House and other short stories . From the series “The Literary Legacy”. Translated from the French by Ernst Sander. With an introduction by Andri Peer. Illustrations by Christian Broutin. Leisure library, (around 1990)
  2. ↑ Cf. Maupassant, contes et nouvelles , p. 1265, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade