I like this episode a lot. I like the original story on which it's based, and I like the twist Sam Dann added by making De Maupassant himself the narrator of the story (in the original it is just a nameless first-person narrative).

De Maupassant had syphilis from his 20's, and began to suffer from mental illness toward the end. About 30 or 40 of his stories reflect his descent into madness, actually a very small percentage of his output. I think he wrote something like 300 works altogether.

Anyway, I am especially fascinated by his description of the Horla because it is a near-perfect clinical description of how it feels to suffer from an anxiety attack---the weight on the chest, the feeling of being suffocated, of panic, and of losing one's strength and sense of control. It is obvious that De Maupassant was desperately trying to describe, and to come up with an explanation for, what was physically happening to him as his mental illness became worse. I find it fascinating, sad, and compelling. Also, the theme of madman as prophet---the idea of a person with deep insights that no one else understands being considered insane---is one of my favorite literary themes. The vast majority of people are so smugly confident in their beliefs, and so very comfortable that they are right and sane. . . it's important that these things are called into question from time to time.

I thought the performances and production values of this episode were all top-notch, and that Sam Dann's decision to make the play reflect De Maupassant's real life was extremely clever. De Maupassant actually was put in a sanitarium, just as in Dann's script. He died a year later. (The original story of The Horla ends rather differently.)