Boule de Suif
2013
First Published
310
Number of Pages
The novel depicts that during the period of the Franco-Prussian War of 1970, when a French carriage was about to leave the enemy-occupied areas, a Prussian military officer detained it and forced a prostitute nicknamed Boule de Suif in the carriage to sleep with him. Boule de Suif rejected him out of patriotism and however, the other passengers with social status thought of their own interests and forced her to sacrifice herself for them. Then Boule de Suif compromised finally. But when the carriage sets out the next morning, those passengers changed into other faces, they isolated her and disdained talking with her. She felt that she was submerged in the contempt of those bad people, for they sacrificed her and then abandoned her like she was a piece of dirty trash.
Author
Guy de Maupassant
Author · 292 books
Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a popular 19th-century French writer. He is one of the fathers of the modern short story. A protege of Flaubert, Maupassant's short stories are characterized by their economy of style and their efficient effortless dénouement. He also wrote six short novels. A number of his stories often denote the futility of war and the innocent civilians who get crushed in it - many are set during the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s.
