Maupassant is often referred to as the father of the modern short story, and “Boule de Suif” is regarded as one of his seminal stories. It is a unique story in that it is simultaneously a work of Realism and of satire. The realist elements come across in the way that Maupassant sets his story in a specific time and place, intentionally capturing the social dynamics between different French socioeconomic classes during the Franco-Prussian War. Maupassant's decision to have the protagonist (Miss Rousset) be a lower-class woman also makes this a work of Realism (as opposed to Romanticism, which typically centered the stories of the wealthy, glamorous class).
The satirical nature of the story, on the other hand, is apparent in the ways that Maupassant exaggerates the qualities of his characters for both playful and political reasons. For example, Mr. and Mrs. Loiseau (the lower-middle class characters) are hyperbolically tactless, Mr. and Mrs. Carré-Lamadon (the middle-class characters) are comically self-involved, and Count and Countess Hubert de Bréville (the wealthiest characters) are extremely cruel and manipulative.
“Boule de Suif” also belongs to the genre of war fiction, as the Franco-Prussian War is at the center of the story. Not only does Maupassant spend several pages at the start of the story giving background on the war and describing its effects on the town of Rouen, but the central conflict in the story is the fact that a German military commander is abusing his power by holding a group of French citizens hostage on their way from Rouen to La Havre. Additionally, each of the 10 main characters has decided to leave their home city for reasons related to the war.
