Alone in his house by the Seine, a man keeps a diary. After a fine Brazilian three-master sails past on the river, he sleeps badly, and when he wakes he finds that the water in his carafe has been drunk during the night. He becomes convinced that an invisible being is living beside him.
Is he mad, or is something really there? Maupassant never decides, and that doubt is what makes it frightening.
The volume also includes other stories by Maupassant. You can read each one in one sitting in the language you are learning.
