An unsigned prologue introduces the reader to 1930s France and sets up the fiction that the novel tells the true story behind an actual newspaper report of the time.

This is imagined as being a passionate adulterous love affair between the book's two central characters with the nation's unstable political scene as its backdrop.

The character of Mattlin is a truly vicious villain, while the mood is down-beat; in fact, it is mock Gothic in the Poe-inspired sub-plot involving the renovation of the Manor House.

On its publication, The Girl at the Lion d'Or was lauded in reviews for Faulks' ability to evoke a sense of time and place and for his adroitness in creating engaging characters.

A wet and dark winter night sees young and beautiful Anne Louvert arrive in Janvilliers from Paris to take up a lowly position at the village inn, the Lion d'Or.

That the battle and a charge of mutiny played such a major part in Anne's personal history suggests a metaphorical link between her and France.

The fact that the prologue to the narrative dedicates the story to Anne, "an unknown girl"[5] rather than the "important public"[5] figures of the time also indicates that the character represents something larger than an individual.

By making Anne a homeless, friendless, orphaned young woman, Faulks is pushing the limits of melodrama in his wish to create a character who is the opposite of those in the male-dominated world of political power.

Geographical imprecision serves the function of making the fictional Janvilliers a French "everytown" where the attitudes and experiences of its inhabitants typify those of towns throughout France of the period.

Choosing 'Lion d'Or', a common and therefore typical name for French inns, as the name of the town hotel is meant to strengthen the idea of this representational aspect of Janvilliers.