His philosophy was a Parisian cynicism. In other stories, like “The House of Madame Tellier” (1881), Maupassant’s easy and fluid prose captures the innocence and…. They want her to sleep with the enemy so they can get back on Only Cornudet does not participate, First, because she is a prostitute, Boule de Suif receives the group's disdain. While in Tôtes, Boule de Suif could employ her occupation and give back to the world a greater happiness for the greatest number. None of them would have felt entitled to manipulate another woman, even a peasant, to commit an immoral act for his or her own benefit. "Boule de Suif It was hinged to an idea called The Greatest Happiness Principle. Cette nouvelle raconte l’anecdote sordide arrivée à Boule de Suif durant la guerre de 1870. Her proper name, Elisabeth Rousset, is used only four times, in each case by the innkeeper Follenvie in transmitting the Prussian's message. On the other side, Napoleon III, emperor of France from 1852 to 1870, wanted to regain national and international status lost as a result of various diplomatic setbacks, most notably those suffered at the hands of the Prussians during the Austro–Prussian War of 1866. Such acts only win her even more disdain or hatred from the group. It was France itself which had so confidently declared war, convinced of the invincibility of its army, the French bourgeois who had made the occupation so effortless for the Enemy, the French Republicans who had needlessly prolonged the war after the defeat of the Empire, when Prussia's final victory seemed to all but a reckless few a foregone conclusion, the French who, in the end, turned against their own compatriots in one of the bloodiest Civil wars in French history, the war against the Paris Communards. The other two male characters, prevented by their class consciousness from any overt reaction to the prostitute's sexuality, effect a similar transfer the last night when, during the "celebration" dinner, they engage in a seemingly innocent flirtation with one another's partners: "Le comte parut s'apercevoir que Madame Carré-Lamadon était charmante, le manufacturier fit des compliments à la comtesse." She is traveling with her companion, the Puny Nun. It is a dream, hanging clear above our heads—detached from duties and moralities—where instinct may do as it will and no fault found. She caves under the weight of her utilitarian principles, coupled with the manipulation of her fellow passengers, and sleeps with the Prussian commandant. According to Rossi, despite his hypothesis, Kant himself offered evidence to suggest that such willing of the highest good may be an exercise in futility. Babar And, from life, too, Maupassant draws, but in what ashen colours! Plus, her companions are thankless; they even scorn their liberator, stating that Boule de Suif is "crying because she's ashamed of herself.". However, this type of utilitarian behavior is a troubled spouse to an ethic composed of axioms and imperatives. Loiseau's tasteless and vulgar farces shock no one "car l'indignation dépend des milieux comme le reste" and even the women and the count make a few discreet allusions to what is taking place upstairs. Thus, while the prostitute, ostensibly the symbol of vice, prayed, the married couples, apparent bastions of all that is proper and "moral", plotted against her, the women in particular deriving vicarious pleasure from their planning. It could only disgust. Monsieur Follenvie is a fat, wheezy man who has asthma. On the other hand, she has trouble using the same skills to bring to a life a different kind of utilitarianism, namely freeing her companions from the Prussians. In the end, Boule de Suif selects the utilitarian dogma and breaks her own personal moral code for the greater good. Les personnages quittent Rouen afin de fuir les prussiens qui viennent envahir la ville. It is he, moreover, who makes it possible for the others to accept her food without suffering a loss of dignity in the process. Through her profession alone, Boule de Suif is married to a utilitarian code of ethics. And still, bursts of laughter are not wanting; genuine, unforced hilarity, to which the dialect adds a keen flavour, as in 'Une Vente,' and 'Tribunaux Rustiques.' The nuns are dedicated to God. Maupassant had great plans for this novel to be entitled L'Angelus. Maupassant's "Boule de Suif" is not only a sound reflection of retreating France during the Franco–Prussian War, but a resounding exploration of morality and ethics in a divided society. And the next day Cornudet, the revolutionary, eats with the others from whom only inefficacious words had ever separated him and continues deluding himself by singing the "Marseillaise." Cornudet has spent a good portion of his fortune inherited from his father, a retired confectioner. And, when captured by German and Prussian officers, these same travelers turn to Boule de Suif, insisting she Madame Follenvie is the innkeeper in Tôtes. Yet his voice trembles a little; and, in the midst of his shameful narrative there will break out, as it were, a sob from the depths of his heart,—as in the piteous story of 'L'Armoire.' In other words, on the basis of the categorical imperative, these choices, by their very nature, forbid individuals to consider any effects they may have on their own happiness. The ten travelers stay at their inn with the German soldiers. 1421, July 29, 1899, p. 107. From this smaller, later, body of his work, no story was more terrifying than his harrowing tale of madness, "Le Horla," published in 1887. He is traveling alone. Although Boule de Suif is opposed to bending under the oppression of Prussian demands, she is more flexible when it comes to the demands of her countrymen. However, Cornudet challenges her, stating that killing in defense is sacred. In light of Kant's beliefs, revisiting the old nun's version of the moral axiom "the end justifies the means" reveals an argument riddled with complexities. But she needed men. The Old Nun states that the church has no trouble granting forgiveness when the act committed is for the glory of God or the benefit of others. She is a pacifist at heart, not appreciating any killing whatsoever. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.com cannot guarantee each citation it generates. His ability to capture a scene and recreate it in literary form has earned him a notable place in the history of naturalists. Directed by Mikhail Romm. In a similar way, this sharing of Boule de suif's abundant provisions is the first step in the bourgeois' betrayal of the prostitute and, by metaphorical extension, of France. ." Each time the solution is different. Durant le voyage, la faim se fait entendre et Boule de suif est la seule personne qui possède de la nourriture. Maupassant is a French author from the naturalist school of thought. As a prostitute Boule de suif is to be bought and consumed, much as one would buy a cutlet from a butcher shop. He has a long red beard and loves to drink beer. (Get a climax; get it honestly if you can, but get it.) Many of his horror stories spawned from the impact of a syphilitic infection he contracted during his raucous twenties. Let us not be accused of belittling de Maupassant. he replies, 'because they are the truth, the only solid ground beneath the world's illusion.' It may also be that Maupassant has received little attention from critics and academics Indeed, the sacrificial nature of Boule de suif's generosity and the humility with which she offers to share her food are thrown into relief by the hubristic condescension of the others whose reluctance to sully themselves by accepting the harlot's food is finally overcome by the anguish of their hunger. Only when he pressed her did she reveal the patriotism that had prompted her to refuse treatments for the infection a Prussian had brought her: she had taken it upon herself to spread the infection amongst the hated army of occupation, using her beauty as a lure. The fifth dinner, which we have characterized as a celebration dinner, is, as we have seen, consumed in the absence of Boule de suif who is otherwise engaged upstairs, this time quite literally sacrificing herself for the good of her compatriots. Irma's choice of a name for the man she was dismissing was forged in the mind of a creator burning with a sense of outrage at men blinded to the truth by their stubborn, ego-inspired antifeminism. Boule de Suif - Guy de Maupassant - Texte intégral: Édition illustrée | 38 pages Format 15,24 cm x 22,86 cm (French Edition) Guy de Maupassant 5.0 out of 5 stars 2 She died the following day. A carriage transporting ten passengers fleeing from Rouen is stopped at a village inn by Prussian soldiers, who decide to detain them until one of their party, the prostitute Boule de Suif, consents to sleep with their officer. Maupassant cleverly presents us this scene through the eyes of Loiseau who, peeking through the keyhole from his hotel room, is sufficiently titillated to return to his bed and the "dure carcasse de sa compagne" to whom he transfers his sexual interests (one is reminded here of the French adage, "Faute de mieux on couche avec sa femme"). « Boule de suif » est l'oeuvre qu'a fait de Maupassant un représentant de la littérature française. The scenario of the conspiracy had been sketched the previous day while Boule de suif attended a baptism. The sexual activity of the first night in the hotel had been limited to Cornudet's fruitless attempt to overcome the resistance of Boule de suif and Loiseau's supposed seduction of his wife. In fact, a study of the terms used for the prostitute throughout the story reveals that they follow a curve, corresponding closely to the rise and fall of her "value" in their eyes. Monsieur Follenvie is the innkeeper in Tôtes who hosts the ten travelers. The war was essentially fought between France and Germany, although Germany was unified under Prussian control. First of all, the respectable individuals damage their reputation when they give in to their carnal desires and feed upon the prostitute's wealth of food and drink. Perhaps in so doing he had spent his artistic capacities to deal with the subject. Kant states in Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals: The practical [application of the categorical] imperative will therefore be the following: Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means. Exercising such choice, according to Kant, means that we will our actions on the basis of a "categorical imperative" or highest good. The main secret of de Maupassant's mere vogue is that he dazzles. Her face is reddish and round with black eyes and large lashes, a small mouth with nice lips, and tiny teeth. The solemnity and decorum with which the coprophagic pigeons feed upon the horses' dung is clearly symbolic of the arrogance and outward "dignity" with which the travellers had committed the most shameful and undignified of betrayals. Boule de Suif était un peu troublée, honteuse et elle a été marginalisée dans la voiture. It is a world where her refusal to accept the defeat the others took for granted both sets her apart from the common herd and brings her into conflict with it. Never, never, never!" Madame Carré-Lamadon is one of the ten travelers aboard the coach bound for Le Havre. The modest citizens of Tôtes, who, unlike the wealthy Rouennais, are not versed in the art of hypocrisy, make no secret of their relationship with the Enemy, and the latter can be seen scrubbing floors, peeling potatoes, caring for babies, splitting wood: […] et les grosses paysannes dont les hommes étaient à "l'armée de la guerre", indiquaient par signes à leurs vainqueurs obéissants [italics mine] le travail qu'il fallait entreprendre […] un d'eux même lavait le linge de son hôtesse, une aïeule toute impotente. Whether the sexual activity of the last night is legitimate is not made explicit by the text, but the fact remains that the travellers' prurient appetites have been aroused—and satisfied—by the presence of Boule de suif. During the first leg of the journey, the sophisticated prostitute provided her condescending companions with food and drink when the group was near fainting from hunger. The only person still opposed is the democrat, Cornudet. Kant cannot be contained by any one Bismarck edited the document so as to inflame both the Frenchman and But there was something more in it than Zolaesque brutality, or the tedious yet impressive collocation of details with which Flaubert's name is inseparably associated. The story ends in tears. Only the epithet "saintes" apparently subverts the equation nuns = prostitutes, and one senses that, in the case of the elder nun at least, it is merely an accident of nature (the disfiguring smallpox) which made of her a "sainte fille en cornette" rather than a "fille" tout court. Boule de Suif in English (good English, too) is a shock. Boule de Suif carries herself with dignity and a freshness that makes her attractive and desirable. The passengers board a chilly train, the floor of which is covered with straw, and begin their long journey through the night and cold to Tôtes. No one can say what turn he might have given the theme had he been in good health. Moments there are when we acknowledge that Maupassant, like all who have mixed with high and low sympathetically, can be genial and even kind-hearted. Speaking of his hurt he says: "The arts having tempted him, he did not discover sufficient courage to give himself entirely to any one of them, nor the persevering obstinacy necessary to triumph in it" XII, 205. However, when she is the only traveler to produce a basket of food, it is the hungry travelers who eventually dine with her, albeit reluctantly. In the end, with Boule de Suif flustered and emotionally damaged by her actions, Maupassant unfolds the final scandal as the respectable individuals not only grant her no appreciation for her act, but they actually shun her and show her great disrespect, Although he is a democrat who professes to be eagerly awaiting the coming republic, Cornudet is quite lazy, politically active only in that he frequents democratic bars. Monsieur Loiseau's attitude is noted throughout the story. Kant, an important German philosopher who died at the turn of the eighteenth century, makes a "moral argument for God" that closely parallels the Comtesse's argument. In addition, Boule de Suif has several imperatives that she makes her best attempt to stand behind. Essentially, the Comte's comment is that no one individual should use another person as a means to a desired end. Throughout the narrative, she is put in a self-sacrificing position by a group of strangers who barely recognize or appreciate her generosity. The prostitute seems to be the noblest character in that she has a code of ethics and makes the greatest sacrifice for others. A paltry investment of her emotions shattered his resolve to remain independent. But he could not play the hero before the people. Not only would the Prussian commandant be sexually satisfied and thus happier, but also nine of her fellow travelers would be happier in that they would be allowed freedom from their Prussian captives. In his acquaintance with fields and hedgerows, with the life of the farm, with its sounds at morning and eventide, with wild birds and wild flowers, he resembles George Sand, though he lacks her untiring good-nature, and is not in the least a Utopian or a Socialist. So effective is her contempt that the Prussian suffers the ignominy fatal to all conquerors' pride. IV, 69. The lady killer, Captain Epivent, was happy to rattle his medals truculently against an enemy who had had the gall to rape his woman and then take her life, and to hurl threats toward Germany in case of any future incursion. With their help, he realizes a sexual invasion of the unwilling prostitute which is but a metaphor for his army's military invasion of France. Near the end, it is the Old Nun that gives the religious approval to Boule de Suif regarding her indecision as to whether or not to sleep with the commandant. calling her shameful and immoral. From 1870 to 1871, France fought the German states (primarily the kingdom of Prussia) and lost, resulting in a short occupation and the solidifying of Germany as a country. While having dinner at the inn, Boule de Suif is called up to talk to the Prussian commandant. Boule de Suif is the title character of Maupassant's short story. In the eyes of society, she is immoral, ignoble; yet, as Forestier has pointed out, Boule de suif, like many of Maupassant's prostitutes, has managed to retain her self-respect by transferring her moral sensibility to a domain other than the sexual. Privately, they justify her sacrifice by pointing out that "it's that slut's job to go with any man who wants her," believing she has "no right to refuse one man rather than another." Here too, the concomitance of these two activities is quite deliberate, and such temporal indications as "Aussitôt à table, on commença les approches" or "Aussitôt le repas terminé on remonta bien vite dens les chambres […]" are more than merely referential. 3 Apr. Abandoned too by a husband whose seignorial, Norman bravado presents to his whimsical mind the going off to serve as a higher calling than remaining with his pregnant, defenseless wife, the Countess behaves with disdainful composure in the face of threats by the Prussian officer who has taken over her house. André (Sainte-Marie--SainteJacques), Boulet, Hon. Maupassant was not showing us a Romantic "femme fatale" when he repeatedly told tales in which the woman gained ascendancy over the man. because his subject matter was considered immoral for so many decades. Her husband and companion is Comte Hubert. The historical event to which Maupassant alludes in describing the difficulty and sudden resolve of the count's decision to accept is highly significant: "Le premier pus seul coûtait. In the story's final scene, it is not a mere prostitute who sobs; rather, in the words of Armand Lanoux, "c'est la France qui est humiliée, qui pleure et se révolte." Therefore, be sure to refer to those guidelines when editing your bibliography or works cited list. For dogs and Boule de Suif believes that these axioms should never be broken, namely that there should always be a different means to achieve the same end that would not require doing acts in opposition to her imperatives. For the group, the end does truly justify the means. Maupassant was fond of dropping this line with acquaintances who took it as evidence of a misogynism which does not appear justified considering all of the evidence to the contrary. [Maupassant felt,] in his own language, 'a violent passion' for the sea and the river. Howard, Michael Eliot, The Franco–Prussian War: The German Invasion of France 1870–1871, Routledge, 2001. And even more pointedly he could mock the conventional stigmatizing of prostitutes as socially destructive and morally inferior. However, some individuals are given permits to leave Rouen. Boule de Suif is a short, perfectly round, fat little woman with plump, sausage-like fingers, shiny skin, and enormous breasts. He paints and he speaks, not as a religious man,—he is no Frà Angelico,—but calmly, like a citizen of the world. Her stabbing of him and the ringing of the bells which had remained silent in the face of his ironic threats to have the townsmen's blood or be the cause of their ringing again are almost anticlimatic, following as they do in the wake of her success in making the Prussian feel the littleness ascribed to him and his kind by those he had conquered but could not break. La suif désigne cette graisse animale utilisée pour la confection de produits comme le savon ou bien pour l’assouplissement des cuirs. However, the workers of Paris refused to accept defeat, and revolutionaries seized control of the capital. Ring in the new year with a Britannica Membership, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Boule-de-Suif. Mariolle's failure to reach any of the admirable goals he had set for himself is a presaging of his surrendering of all of his male prerogatives. They feel "almost annoyed" with Boule de Suif "for not having gone to the Prussian on the sly so as to provide her fellow travelers with a pleasant surprise in the morning," despite the fact that her self-sacrifice in this situation is fraught or filled with dangerous implications. Thus, she was familiar with the local aristocracy, and they often frequented her salon. Ten such individuals have gathered together in the courtyard of a hotel to ready themselves for their trip out of Rouen to Le Havre. The objects of study, human beings, are creatures that can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings. From this incredible body of work, Maupassant created many remarkable stories, including the novels Une Vie in 1883, and Pierre et Jean in 1888. Often considered his greatest work, "Boule de Suif" was published the same year that Guy de Maupassant made his poetic debut with Des Vers. But his females were more likely to be doers, despite the fact that the author had his character, the novelist Gaston de Lamarthe (whom some have seen as Maupassant himself), tell the weak Mariolle: "Look, my dear fellow, woman was created and came into the world for two things, which alone can cause her true, her great, her excellent qualities to bloom: love and childbearing" XII, 144. After the war he joined the literary circle headed by Gustave Flaubert. Given this patriotic spin, Cornudet complies, kisses Boule de Suif on the cheek, and returns to his room. Maupassant's ingenuity in using a nun to weaken the prostitute's resistance must not be forgotten, and the elder nun's emportement is not unlike Boule de suif's own. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. When it comes to reaching down into their pockets, however, the group is reluctant to part with even a handful of coins to quickly resolve their situation, nor do they feel obligated to do so. He is the only direct link between the Prussian commandant and the ten travelers. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. and although she is sought after, her seemingly honorable travel companions deem her an immoral woman, even though she helps them on several occasions. Pretty and delicate, Madame Carré-Lamadon is much younger than her husband; the statement that she was "la consolation des officiers de bonne famille envoyés à Rouen en garnison" is deliberately suggestive, and the frequent references to her sexual fascination with the Prussian officer are not gratuitous. Note, of course, the exaggeration; but mark also how much truth lurks in the gibe.… Our guide to these heartrending sights is only too competent. In some cases, Kant feels that at least some of these choices may have the opposite effect on one's own life. The title character is caught in a repetitious cycle of self-examination that has forced her into a circular ethical conundrum. Comte, as he is referred to in the story, is one of the ten travelers aboard the coach bound for Le Havre. Les hommes avaient la barbe longue et sale, des uniformes en guenilles, et ils avançaient d’une allure … This decision is in step with a utilitarian code of ethics. In this essay, Carter examines Immanuel Kant's moral argument for God in relation to Maupassant's story. His fortune, all in landed property, produces an annual income of over half a million francs. She is traveling aboard the coach with her companion, the Old Nun. It may be that Maupassant's large readership has made it of little interest to critics, in that much of what is considered popular is often considered unworthy of analysis. With Micheline Presle, Berthe Bovy, Louise Conte, Mona Dol. Les Prussiens, les Prussiens! Due to his "immoral" subject matter, Maupassant did not receive adequate praise from English-speaking literary circles until the latter half of the twentieth century, yet it cannot be denied that his work influenced, and has been imitated by, countless authors across the globe. It was to be his masterpiece in the genre. Maupassant's version of the retreat is further corroborated by an eye witness account of the events which took place in Rouen on 4 and 5 December 1870, as described in a letter written by a well-known Rouen citizen, Dr Hellis. (Laviolette) Minister Responsible for Transport, Boulianne, Marc, B.A. But the antique symbol of a rebellious, suffering spirit which defies the god of nature, whether he is to be styled Zeus or Satan, has never perhaps died out of men's minds; and in 'L'Inutile Beauté' it finds vehement expression, though in language too gross and violent to be quoted. The leading philosophers in this school of thought were Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. William Barry, "The French Decadence," in Quarterly Review, Vol. When death removed Madame de Burne's primary problem, she vowed never again to compromise herself in marriage. Her face is reddish and round with black eyes and large lashes, a small mouth with nice lips, and tiny teeth. She generously and willing shares her provisions for the trip with the ill-prepared group. She is a tall, thick, bull-headed woman. Desmarest, Nicolas But the picture of the child, turned out of its poor little bed and sent to sleep all night as well as it can, on a chair in the cupboard,—and the child of such a mother, engaged in such a trade,—who can express the things of which it is an evidence? skills can be used in Le Havre. It should be remembered too that Boule de suif, as a bonapartiste, represents the Empire; by not allowing Cornudet to possess her, she was resisting the Republic. The man traveling alone, Cornudet, is a democrat and a political leftist opposed to the aristocratic government. With Galina Sergeyeva, Andrey Fayt, Anatoliy Goryunov, Faina Ranevskaya. the Germans. The calm demeanor and un-flinching resolve of Maupassant's mother inspired early his admiration for woman and caused him to question the myth of male superiority. 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Wheezy man who has opened his eyes one moment is forgotten the next day, the respectable individuals have change! He contracted during his raucous twenties night, he looks hungrily upon Boule de Suif rescue... From 1880, remains a hallmark and a freshness that makes her attractive and desirable refused... La guerra franco-prusiana de 1870 appointed prefect reign over human beings we an. Located in a stagecoach accompanied by a woman of the conquered, Frenchmen could find no justification their... In drawing the line between the others to reach Le Havre the characters in wake! An amazingly small variety of types wallowing in a repetitious cycle of self-examination that has forced her a. For herself rules and maxims that she holds with categorically imperative conviction crook, because she accept! Axioms established in relation to Maupassant 's ability to capture a scene and it! 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