Mauprat was adapted by Jean Epstein from a novel of the famous novelist George Sand. Like many of Sand's novels, Mauprat borrows from various fictional genres- the Gothic novel, chivalric romance, the Bildungsroman, detective fiction, and the historical novel. Luis Buñuel was assistant director on this film, and was Buñuel's first film credit.

The novel, set before the French Revolution, depicts the coming of age of a nobleman named Bernard Mauprat. The novel's plot has been called a plot of female socialization, in which the hero is taught by the heroine how to live peacefully in society. Mauprat also resembles the fairy tale "Beauty and the beast." Bernard, raised by a violent gang of his feudal kinsmen after the death of his mother, becomes a brutalized "enfant sauvage." When his cousin Edmée is held captive by Bernard's "family", he helps her escape, but elicits a promise of marriage from her by threatening rape. Thus begins the long courtship of Bernard and Edmée. [Reedited from Wikipedia]