Du magnétisme à la folie dans Magnétisme et Un fou ? de Guy de Maupassant
From magnetism to madness in Guy de Maupassant’s “Magnetism” and “A Madman?”

Summary/Abstract: Guy de Maupassant’s short stories entitled Magnetism (1882) and A Madman? (1884) belong to the series known as “gothic stories”. Their central theme is madness – real, presumed, or just threatening one’s mental soundness. The paper discusses the relation between madness and animal magnetism, or mesmerism, a “supernatural” phenomenon that fascinated numerous minds in the 19th century. Can the capacity of “magnetizing” other people, animals or objects result in loss of mental balance by the magnetizer? Or maybe, on the contrary, this capacity does not exist at all, and those who don’t accept its rational explanation have become crazy? The doubt and the fear involved by those questions are main features of Maupassant’s works.

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