10. Throughout the Empire: The Second Empire (1852–70) under Napoleon III, formerly Louis Napoleon, who died in exile at Chislewick in England.

11. Orleanists: After the February revolution of 1848, the monarchist party was divided into légitimistes and Orléanistes. The latter, supporters of the younger, Orleanist branch of the royal family, hoped to place on the throne the Comte de Paris, grandson of Louis-Philippe.

12. half a million francs: Considering that the average salary of a Ministry employee like Maupassant was between 1,800 and 2,400 francs per annum, these people are extremely wealthy, even by Rouennais standards.

13. Fourth of September: 4 September 1870, the founding of the Third Republic.

14. Tôtes: The village some fifty kilometres from Rouen where Flaubert sets the first part of Madame Bovary.

15. Badinguet: The workman who lent his clothes to disguise and effect the escape of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte when the latter was a prisoner at the fortress of Ham in 1846. It thereafter became a nickname for Napoleon III himself.

16. du Guesclin: Fourteenth-century warrior-hero and famous scourge of the English to whose raids he finally put a stop by using guerrilla tactics.

17. the Imperial Prince: Napoleon III’s fourteen-year-old son, Eugène Louis.

18. trente-et-un: Card game in which first player to get exactly thirty-one wins.

19. écarté: Another card game combining elements of both rummy and canasta.

20. Judith and Holophernes … Lucretia and Sextus: The Jewish heroine Judith, in order to save the city of Bethulia, seduced Holophernes, one of Nebuchadnezzar’s generals, who was laying siege to it. First seeking him out in his tent and making him drunk, she seduced him and cut off his head while he lay sleeping. Lucretia and Sextus seem to have no real relevance to the situation and are possibly a means of indicating the ignorance of the company. According to Livy, Sextus Tarquin’s rape of Lucretia led to the dethronement of Tarquinius Superbus and the establishment of a republic.

A PARISIAN AFFAIR

First published in 1881 as ‘Une aventure parisienne’.

1. Chaussée d’Antin: Then, as now, a popular area and site of the grands magasins or department stores such as Galeries Lafayette and Au Printemps, in their infancy during this period.

2. bibelots: Curios or knick-knacks. For a fascinating examination of the issues of collecting, consuming and classifying, and a description of the curiosities, antiques and objets d’art which proliferated in French literary texts during the last decade of the nineteenth century, see Janell Watson: Literature and Material Culture from Balzac to Proust, cited in Further Reading.

3. Busnach: William Busnach (1832–1907) was a popular playwright famous for his theatrical adaptations of some of Zola’s novels such as Nana and L’Assommoir (The Drinking Den).

4. Dumas: Alexandre Dumas, fils (1824–95). One of the most successful dramatists of the Second Empire and author of La Dame aux camélias, which was an overnight success. His father (1802–70), known as Dumas père, was the author of Le Comte de Monte Cristo and Les Trois Mousquetaires.