The Necklace

What this book practices

A retelling, in new words, of the whole of Guy de Maupassant's 1884 short story, keeping its irony and its famous last line. Mathilde is drawn with sympathy as well as judgment, so readers can argue about pride, honesty and blame.

Level

Chapter book: Seven short chapters, about 190 words on a page

Themes

Classic, Honesty

After the story

A short activity checks understanding, then a prompt to tell a grown-up about the book.

Levels are PlayOwl's own design guidelines for each grade, not a certified reading level. In I'll Read, PlayOwl records that a child turned every page; it cannot hear whether the words were read.

Credit and rights

Retold by PlayOwl from The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant (1884). Source: The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant (1884).

The words are new PlayOwl writing that follows a story in the public domain. PlayOwl claims no rights in the underlying story.

Adaptation

Follows the events of The Necklace (La Parure) by Guy de Maupassant, a French short story. The story is retold in new sentences, with some reflection added by the narrator. The retelling was checked against three old public-domain English translations, named in the text record, and reworded so that no sentence follows them. No abridgement, film or illustrated edition was used; only the events, the characters, the sums of money and the sense of the last line come from the original. Public domain. In the United States, copyright in works published before 1929 has expired, and this work was first published in 1884. In countries where copyright lasts for the author's life plus 70 years, the term ended on 31 December 1963, because Guy de Maupassant died in 1893. The three English translations against which the retelling was checked were published before 1929 and are in the public domain in the United States; no sentence of the retelling follows them. PlayOwl claims no rights in the underlying story.

Cover

Drawn in code for PlayOwl in 2026 with the Read with Olly illustration kit. An original design, not based on the cover or pictures of any edition or film. Original work owned by PlayOwl.

Illustrations

Drawn in code for PlayOwl in 2026 with the Read with Olly illustration kit, from the picture briefs in this file (Paris in the 1880s). Original designs, not based on the pictures of any edition or film. Original work owned by PlayOwl.

Narration

Spoken by the reader's own device voice. PlayOwl ships no recording. No recorded work exists.

Text

Written for PlayOwl in 2026 as a new retelling of the whole of The Necklace. It was checked against three old public-domain English translations (Jonathan Sturges, in Stories by Foreign Authors; The Complete Short Stories of Guy de Maupassant, 1903; and McMaster, Henderson, Quesada and others, in Original Short Stories) and reworded so that no sentence follows any of them. One short phrase is kept: the closing words "Oh, my poor Mathilde! But mine was false.", PlayOwl's own close rendering of the French original's last line. Original wording owned by PlayOwl. The underlying story is in the public domain (see the adaptation record).