Le Horla

About

Maupassant's most famous horror story (1887) — the journal of a man who becomes convinced that an invisible being (the Horla) has invaded his mind and will — is simultaneously a psychological study of paranoia and a genuine horror story that refuses to resolve the question of whether the narrator is mad or haunted. Maupassant himself suffered from the progressive madness that eventually killed him, giving the story an autobiographical dimension that makes it even more disturbing. As group reading, the diary form makes it ideal for a single powerful narrator.