Young attractive & very ambitious George Duroy known to his friends as Bel-Ami is offered a job as a journalist on La Vie francaise & soon makes a great success of his new career. But he also comes face to face with the realities of the corrupt society in which he lives
- the sleazy colleagues the manipulative mistresses & wily financiers
- & swiftly learns to become an arch-seducer blackmailer & social climber in a world where love is only a means to an end. Written when Maupassant was at the height of his powers Bel-Ami" is a novel of great frankness & cynicism but it is also infused with the sheer joy of life
- depicting the scenes & characters of Paris in the belle epoque with wit sensitivity & humanity."