SOURCE: Orlich, Ileana Alexandra. “Tracking the Missing Link: Maupassant's ‘Promenade’ and James's The Beast in the Jungle.” The Comparatist 18 (May 1994): 71-89.

In the following essay, Orlich probes links between “Promenade” and Henry James's novella The Beast in the Jungle.

… An achievement in art or in letters grows more interesting when we begin to perceive its corrections … works of art become still more interesting as we note their coincidences and relations with other works, for then they begin to illustrate other talents and other characters as well: the plot thickens, the whole spectacle expands.”

—Henry James, “Essays in London and Elsewhere”

As a tale of its protagonist's lonely and melancholy walk through life, Henry James's novella, The Beast in the Jungle,¹ echoes a story of Maupassant whose very title, “Promenade,” suggests a possible link casually mentioned by Edel (The Master 134). According to Edel, James singled out “A Little Walk...