“Boule de Suif” is set in Northern France sometime between 1870 and 1871, which was during the Franco-Prussian War. The war was the result of the German states (led by the Kingdom of Prussia) attempting to invade and occupy France—they were ultimately successful in doing so.
The story starts in the Prussian-occupied city of Rouen, with Maupassant dedicating several pages to setting the war-torn scene before introducing any of the characters. The intentional way in which he captures both the geography of the setting, as well as the bleak mood of a war-impacted town, comes across in the following passage:
The last French soldiers finally came across the Seine to reach the Audemer bridge through Saint-Sever and Bourg-Achard; and, marching behind, on foot, between two officers of ordnance, the General, in despair, unable to do anything with these incongruous tatters, himself lost in the breaking-up of a people accustomed to conquer, and disastrously beaten, in spite of his legendary bravery.
By referencing the Seine, Audemer bridge, Saint-Sever, and Bourg-Achard, Guy de Maupassant helps his readers picture where the story takes place, while his emotional descriptions of foot soldiers as “incongruous tatters” and the French as “a people accustomed to conquer” help readers understand the depressing war-torn nature of the setting. (It is worth noting that the story briefly shifts into a satirical tone here to describe the General’s belief in his “legendary bravery,” as this is Guy de Maupassant’s way of critiquing the self-importance of elite military officials during the war.)
Once Maupassant introduces readers to the 10 Rouen citizens at the center of the story, the story follows their progress on carriage from Rouen to the small village of Totes and then onto their final destination of La Havre. The characters navigate the effects of the Franco-Prussian war everywhere they go.
