Having belatedly discovered that Marina Sofia has been posting for #FrenchFebruary I scoured the TBR for something I could read quickly so that I could contribute. I don't know who to thank for my purchase of Guy de Maupassant's Butterball ('Boule de suif') but it is a perfect little novella to share. With the added bonus that I can use it to make a contribution to my long-neglected collaborative Marvellous Maupassant site.

Butterball was first published as part of the collection known as Les soirées de Médan by authors Émile Zola; Joris-Karl Huysmans; Henri Céard; Léon Hennique; Paul Alexis and Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893). The authors were all associated with French Naturalism (of which Zola is the best known exponent) and all six stories all concern the Franco-Prussian War. As Wikipedia explains:

The aim of the collection was to promote the ideals of Naturalism, by treating the events of the Franco-Prussian War in a realistic and often unheroic way, in contrast to officially approved patriotic views of the war.

Well, Butterball certainly does that!

It's a satire of bourgeois hypocrisy set in the wake of the occupation of Rouen by Prussian forces in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). It begins with streets deserted and shops closed as the inhabitants await the arrival of the Prussians. Hasty preparations are made to secure vital interests, and strategic relationships covertly emerge when Prussian officers billet themselves in the comfort of bourgeois homes. And so it is that before dawn a carriage is able to set out for Dieppe without interference.

When the sun rises the passengers are able to see who their companions are. They are a microcosm of bourgeois French society: two nuns; a wine merchant and his wife; a wealthy cotton merchant and his wife; a count and countess; and the terror of respectable folk, the Democrat Cornudet who has spent his inheritance in anticipation of The Republic.

And there is Elisabeth Rousset.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/02/22/butterball-1880-boule-de-suif-by-guy-de-maup... ( )

"¿Comprende, señor? Entre los pobres hay que ayudarse... Son los poderosos quienes hacen la guerra". ( )

I don't know if it was the fault of the translation or the original stories themselves, but very little of this gripped me. Possibly because "Boule de Suif" had so enraged me when I read it that I had little taste for the rest of the stories. Not recommended. ( )

Excelente colección de cuentos de uno de los padres del cuento moderno. Los personajes siempre son memorables, simbólicos, universales. La estructura de cada cuento es simplemente perfecta. La Francia soñada de Maupassant duerme en estos breves textos, esperando a que alguien con un poco de compasión venga a revivirla. ( )

Esta selección de cuentos incluye algunos ambientados en la Guerra Francoprusiana, historias de mujeres, de un niño y de un adolescente ( )