In the novel, Maupassant again intended to criticize secular society, its cosmopolitan and Rastacourt circles. The resort of Aix-les-Bains, where the action of the novel was supposed to take place, with its casino, where gambling, money, and love were so closely intertwined, provided the writer with rich material for this. However, Maupassant interrupted work on the work because the theme of “A Foreign Soul” like other novels about secular society (“Strong as Death”, “Our Heart”), began to seem too small to the writer. To continue to expose the insignificance, emptiness and parasitic existence of secular people, to expose their petty passions, their arrogance and hypocrisy - no, this no longer satisfied Maupassant at the time when he began to foresee his approaching end.