Bel-Ami

Published in 1885, this novel follows Georges Duroy, a handsome, underpaid former NCO who arrives in Third Republic Paris and enters journalism through his friend Forestier. He learns to write political copy, to use the newspaper as a weapon, and to rise by becoming indispensable to other men's wives: Madeleine Forestier, the sentimental Clotilde de Marelle, and the anxious Mme Walter. Marriage, duelling, colonial speculation, and salon politics mark each step of his climb. The book is a career story of sexual and social opportunism in a city where news, money, and desire share the same rooms.

Bound in cream cloth with an illustrative design in dark purple by Grant. White dust-jacket printed in red and pale blue, repeating the design on the binding.