In an introduction by Leo Tolstoy, this author says “I describe it because I like such descriptions” about an image of “pink flesh.” This author wrote that the novelist is told “console me, amuse me” and listed 25 varied novels to refute narrow-minded critics in his preface, “The Novel.” A novel by this author opens on a retired jeweler’s boat, before an inheritance from Maréchal (“mah-ray-SHAHL”) leads a doctor to suspect his brother’s illegitimacy. A series of affairs helps a journalist climb the ranks (10[1])of the newspaper (10[2])La Vie (-5[1])Française (-5[2])(“lah vee frahn-SEZZ”) in this author’s novel about (10[1])Georges Duroy (10[2])(“dew-RWAH”). This protégé (10[1])of Gustave Flaubert considered Pierre et Jean (-5[1])his best (10[1])novel. In a twist ending to one of this author’s many stories printed in Gil Blas (10[1])(“zheel blah”), a mistaken debt to Madame Forestier (10[4])is repaid (10[3])by (10[4])Mathilde Loisel (10[1])(“lwah-ZEL”). For 10 points, name this author of Bel-Ami and “The Necklace.” ■END■ (10[3])