Down and out betrayal

This is a new translation of Maupassant's most critically acclaimed short story, Boule de Suif, part of an admirable series of little-known or neglected works by classic authors.

Germaine Greer provides a foreword and Andrew Brown an illuminating introduction to Maupassant's damning indictment of the bourgeoisie. The tale is set during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, where a good-hearted prostitute with scruples (called Butterball on account of her ample proportions) is treated with ruthless hypocrisy by her fellow 'respectable' travellers on their flight from occupied Rouen to Dieppe.

Butterball shares her provisions with her starving companions, but is sacrificed by them to sleep with a Prussian officer in order to facilitate their journey. The final humiliation comes when they later refuse to share their food with her once she has saved their skins. Well worth re-reading.