The novel “Life” by Guy de Maupassant is a surprisingly touching and vital story of a pure, innocent girl, Jeanne, a pupil of a monastery, who loves nature and dreams of sublime love and family happiness. Her bright aspirations and ideals are shattered by cruel reality - she becomes the wife of a petty, stingy and rude man. This is the story of a great tragedy of a little man, but there is no external drama or exaggeration in it. The story described in the book is simple, but at the same time incomprehensible, like life itself. The novel “Life” was highly praised by Leo Tolstoy, considering it the best novel by Maupassant, as well as the best French novel after Hugo’s “Les Miserables.”