Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant.
An ambitious young man enters Parisian journalism and discovers how quickly charm can become a route to influence. Guy de Maupassant follows Georges Duroy's ascent through a society in which relationships are treated as instruments of advancement.
Read it for the ease with which success can disguise its methods. The novel asks whether a corrupt environment merely rewards a person's instincts or helps create them.
Edition notes: The cover and Barnes & Noble paperback are the 2012 Penguin edition (ISBN 9780143119104). The Amazon option is a Kindle ebook. Both use Douglas Parmée’s translation.
