This month’s story, ‘My Uncle Jules’ by Guy de Maupassant, could be categorised as a ‘rags to riches’ (and then back again) story, or maybe it’s just a rags to rags story. See what you think. As always you will get the most out of this masterclass if you read the story for yourself: www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/UnclJule.shtml
The first thing to notice about the story is that it is a ‘frame narrative’ – a story within a story. The opening of the story is a very brief snatch of action where we see our unnamed narrator interacting with a man called Joseph Davranche, who will go on to be the narrator of the rest of the story. In the brief incident at the beginning of the story Joseph gives a substantial amount of money to a beggar. The significance of this will become clear in the light of the rest of the story.
We are given a very clear signpost as
