tty wife, Mathilde, always waits for him after his day's routine work with an economical but tasty meal. One evening he arrives home in particularly good spirits because he is sure he has achieved something that will delight his wife: he has managed to get an invitation for them both to attend an official reception at the Ministry. On the way home from the reception, disaster strikes. Somehow, somewhere, the clasp of the diamond necklace must have come undone. Mathilde and her husband search everywhere desperately and make inquiries in all the right places, but all in vein. Rather than face the disgrace of going and telling Madame Forestier of the loss, they buy a replacement. The price is enormous. All Monsieur Loisel's savings, including a small inheritance, have to be paid over, and he contracts debts with a number of his friends. Now begins a desperate race against time to pay off everything. The Critic is Donald Adamson, 'The Necklace' is one of the most famous of Maupassant's short stories but also one of the most enigmatic. Its crux is the loss of a diamond necklace borrowed by the wife of a low-ranking official in the Education Ministry, who wears it at a ball given by her husband's employers. Madame Loisel is poor but an honest woman. She is determined to return an identical-or practically identical- piece of jewelry to Madame Forestier, the wealthy school friend from whom she had borrowed it. The price of a similar necklace is 36,000 francs. Monsieur Loisel already has half that sum; he borrows the remainder. Husband and wife spend the next ten years in poverty until they finally paid off their debt. One day, not long after the last loan repayment has been made, Madame Loisel happens to meet Madame Forestier again. In the course of conversation she relates the tribulations she has been through since borrowing the necklace. Madame Forestier explains that those glittering gems were mere costume jewelry. The first feature of "Th...
