# Joseph Renardet — Short Fiction character guide

> Joseph Renardet in Short Fiction by Guy de Maupassant.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** So Renardet, Renardet, Still Renardet

**First appearance:** 0003-short-fiction

## Snapshot

A wealthy, powerful landowner whose respectable public life is shadowed by a buried crime that resurfaces when the past walks back into town.

## Who they are

Renardet commands deference in his provincial district as a man of property, influence, and apparent integrity. Beneath that surface lies an old transgression he has spent years outrunning, and the arrival of a stranger threatens to expose what he has carefully hidden. His mounting dread and his instinct to protect his position drive the story's slow-burning tension between reputation and guilt.

## In the story

### [A Reckless Passion](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters/a-reckless-passion)

Appears as Joseph Poinçot, the husband who eventually comes to reclaim his wife for the sake of their daughters.

### [Mother and Daughter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters/mother-and-daughter)

Joseph Bonenthal, the narrator's servant who previously worked for the Comtesse Samoris and provided details of Yveline's death.

### [Friend Joseph](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters/friend-joseph)

The old friend and Republican district councillor whose casual, anti-clerical, and domineering manner disrupts the Mérouls' household.

### [A Coup d'État](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters/a-coup-d-tat)

M. de Varnetot, the Legitimist mayor, defiantly refuses to surrender the town hall, barricading himself inside with his gamekeepers.

### [Little Roque](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters/little-roque)

Mayor of Carvelin and wealthy landowner; discovers the body with the doctor, leads the investigation, and later walks alone in the copse.

### [Chapter II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters/ii)

The mayor, haunted by guilt and fear after murdering a child; he considers suicide and tries to retrieve his confession letter.

### [Rosalie Prudent](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters/rosalie-prudent)

Monsieur Joseph Varambot, the artillery N.C.O. and nephew of her employers, who seduced and impregnated Rosalie.

### [The Hole](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters/the-hole)

Widow of the deceased victim, present as a witness.

### [The Marquis of Fumerol](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters/the-marquis-of-fumerol)

The Marquis de Fumerol, the dying freethinking uncle who rejects religious intervention.

### [The Drowned Man](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters/the-drowned-man)

Central figure in the drowning incident, possibly involved in the man's death.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters/iii)

Not present in this chapter.

### [Graveyard Sirens](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/chapters/graveyard-sirens)

The narrator and protagonist, a bachelor who frequents cemeteries and recounts his strange encounter with a mourning woman.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters/joseph_renardet
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_23_se/characters