The plot is widely known about the witty explanation of the French classic why he constantly visited the Parisian attraction so unloved by him. We checked whether this story really took place.
It is believed that the French writer Guy de Maupassant was one of those who was very annoyed by the Eiffel Tower erected during his life. Nevertheless, he often dined in a restaurant on her first tier, explaining: this is the only place in Paris, from where the structure itself is not visible.
Many popular Russian -speaking sources, such as "RIA Novosti","Satellite","Russian newspaper","Museum of Facts", Numerous printed ones Books About France and collections interesting facts, authoritative French edition Liberation And even Official site Eiffel Tower.
The idea to build a giant tower in Paris was born a few years before World Exhibition of 1889. The construction was to become the main attraction of the event dedicated to the centenary of the French Revolution. A project competition was announced, the favorite of which became the 370-meter tower of the head of the “Column of the Sun” from granite and porphyry of the architect Jules Burde and the 300-meter metal structure of the engineer Gustav Eiffel.
The unusual, far from the standards of that time and Eiffel's utilitarian idea aroused great interest, and even the spontaneous decision of Bourde also did not help him to move from stone to gland - the project of the Eiffel Tower won the competition.
However, not all Parisians perceived the prospect of the appearance in the very center of the French capital of a huge metal structure calmly, and first of all the local bomond. February 14, 1887 in a newspaper Le Temps The letter of “artists of art against the tower of Mr. Eiffel” appeared, which contained a request to stop all construction work: “We, artists, artists, sculptors, architects, passionate lovers are still the untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all the forces of our indignant soul ... In order to understand us, in a moment, at least for a moment of an extremely absurd tower, for a moment, for a moment, for a moment, for a moment, for a moment, for a moment. Similar to a giant, black factory chimney, which presses its barbaric mass on our humiliated and offended monuments, on all our architecture, which became such a miniature ... ”Among the signed under this appeal were the writer Alexander Duma-son, composer Charles Guno and writer Gu Garnier.
The appeal did not take strength. The tower opened for the public on May 15, 1889, called the splash and in the near future became the main symbol of Paris. Initially designed for 20 years of operation, it pleases the guests and residents of the French capital. However, in the early years, not everyone reconciled with its existence, and, definitely, among such people there was all the same Maupassant.
IN complete works The classic of the Eiffel Tower is mentioned three times. Firstly, this is an article entitled “Wealth”, published in the same 1887 as a protest letter and containing a sharp criticism of the project. In the publication of 1888, “in the clouds” Maupassant casually mentions the tower in the description of his flight in the balloon above the capital. Finally, in 1890, the book of travel notes was published "Wandering life". In the first essay called "Fatigue" Maupassant Writes: “I left Paris and even France, because the Eiffel Tower was too tired of me. It is not only visible from everywhere, but generally comes across at every step: it is made of all possible materials and pursues you from all the windows, as an inevitable, painful nightmare. <...> There are not a single free table in restaurants, and you do not find a single friend who would have lunch at home or agree to have lunch with you. If you invite him, he will accept your invitation, provided that the tower has dinner at Eiffel. There is more fun. And all, as if obeying some kind of order, they invite you there every day of the week to have breakfast or lunch. In this heat, in this dust, in this stench, in this crowd of tipsy, sweaty common people ... It was also possible to once or two with squeamishness and with curiosity to taste the hacks of air taverns-I was ready to allow this-but I was amazed that I could dine daily in such mud and in a bustard, as people of a good society did a sort of society chosen society, a sophisticated and stiff society, which is usually mating from one type of labor and smelling human fatigue of the people. ”
As you can see, Guy de Maupassant far from raising the Eiffel Tower and admitted that at some point he left the city, if only not to see it. In addition, he allowed the opportunity to eat on the tower once or twice, but was not ready to do it daily and scolded local restaurants. In one letter He persuaded a friend not to appoint a dinner at an institution on the tower, from another It should have been there at least several times. And in any case, in written sources, Maupassant did not argue his visits to the tower in any way that he could not see her so. “Verified” did not find such evidence in other authoritative publications related to the personality of Maupassant and who came out during his lifetime or shortly after his death in 1893, just four years after the completion of construction. Judging by certificates Contemporaries, this was a period when Maupassant, just because of the Eiffel Tower, abruptly fell out of love with Paris. According to one of Necrologists, the writer cursed the design to the last and said that the ladies were more likely to have lunch on her first tier than to his date.
Moreover, in the Google Book project, the attribution of this story Maupassan in the sources of the first half of the 20th century is not found at all. Roland Bart with his essay "Eiffel Tower"(1964) was one of the first famous people to mention this plot; In the book of the Frenchman Francois Deno "Mirror of French civilization"(1938) She is still served as a bike about the nameless unloved tower. Further traces in French are lost, but suddenly found in English. Moreover, the oldest incident “verified” the case of mentioning even contains a specific name. IN Report The Manchester Literary Club for 1914 mentions the history of writer William Morris, who was once asked why he spends so much time on the Eiffel Tower during his visits to Paris. To which he replied: "This is the only place where this damned thing is visible." In 1921, several English newspapers Printed An expanded version of the story of Morris, which has already mentioned frequent dinners. A decade after a decade this bike It changed In the British press, until it became not only an anecdot, but also a base for other similar jokes - for example, about Stalin's skyscraper In Warsaw. Apparently, the story was born in the UK.
It is not difficult to assume why the hero of this joke later became Maupassant - it was one of the most famous haters of the Eiffel Tower, and he really happened to have lunch there, albeit without much, judging by his notes, pleasure. Perhaps the joke and the real image of the Frenchman were overlapped. One way or another, but the facts known to us do not allow us to connect the famous story about the Eiffel Tower with Guy de Massan.
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