In his book, Arman Lanu leads the reader in the paths of a literary researcher, introduces him to conflicting testimonies, shares his doubts, invites him to think with him about different interpretations of a fact. Lana knows a lot about Maupassant, obviously, almost everything that could be learned about him in the 60s of the XX century. There are many facts, events, significant and small documents in the book, there may be too many of them, and not always random is separated from the main one. Translated from French by E. Lazebnikova.