"L'inutile beauté" by Guy de Maupassant is a short story published in 1926. It follows Countess de Mascaret, who after bearing seven children in eleven years of marriage, confesses a devastating secret to her husband: one child is not his. She refuses to reveal which one, wielding this uncertainty as a weapon against a man she believes has reduced her to a "baby factory." The story explores themes of beauty, power, and marriage through their tense psychological battle. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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