 At the start of the novel , Balzac declares ( in English ) : " All is true " . Although the characters and situations are fictions , the details employed – and their reflection of the realities of life in Paris at the time – faithfully render the world of the Maison Vauquer . The rue Neuve @-@ Sainte @-@ Geneviève ( where the house is located ) presents " a grim look about the houses , a suggestion of a jail about those high garden walls " . The interiors of the house are painstakingly described , from the shabby sitting room ( " Nothing can be more depressing " ) to the coverings on the walls depicting a feast ( " papers that a little suburban tavern would have disdained " ) – an ironic decoration in a house known for its wretched food . Balzac owed the former detail to the expertise of his friend Hyacinthe de Latouche , who was trained in the practice of hanging wallpaper . The house is even defined by its repulsive smell , unique to the poor boardinghouse . 
