La Fortune des Rougon.
In the preface to this novel Zola explains his theories of heredity,
and the work itself forms the introductory chapter to that great series
which deals with the life history of a family and its descendants during
the second empire.
The common ancestress of the Rougons and the Macquarts was Adelaide
Fouque, a girl who from youth had been subject to nervous seizures.
From her father she inherited a small farm, and at the age of eighteen
married one of her own labourers, a man named Rougon, who died fifteen
months afterwards, leaving her with one son, named Pierre. Shortly after
her husband’s death she fell completely under the influence of Macquart,
a drunken smuggler and poacher, by whom in course of time she had a
son named Antoine and a daughter named Ursule. She became more and more
subject to cataleptic attacks, until eventually her mind was completely
unhinged. Pierre Rougon, her legitimate son, was a man of strong will
inherited from his father, and he early saw that his mother’s property
was being squandered by the Macquarts. By means approximating to fraud
he induced his mother, who was then facile, to sell her property and
hand over the proceeds to him. Soon after he married Felicite Peuch, a
woman of great shrewdness and keen intelligence, by whom he had three
sons (Eugene, Aristide, and Pascal) and two daughters (Marthe and
Sidonie). Pierre Rougon was not particularly prosperous, but his eldest
son, Eugene, went to Paris and became mixed up in the Bonapartist plots
which led to the _Coup d’Etat_ of 1851. He was consequently able to give
his parents early information as to the probable course of events, and
the result of their action was to lay the foundations of the family
fortune.
The scene of the book is the Provencal town of Plassans, and the tragic
events attending the rising of the populace against the _Coup d’Etat_
are told with accuracy and knowledge. There is a charming love idyll
between Silvere Mouret, a son of Ursule Macquart, and a young girl named
Miette, both of whom fall as victims in the rising which followed the
_Coup d’Etat_.
Mr. E. A. Vizetelly, in his introduction to the English translation of
_The Conquest of Plassans_ (London: Chatto & Windus), points out that
almost every incident in _The Fortune of the Rougons_ is based upon
historical fact. “For instance,” he says, “Miette had a counterpart
in Madame Ferrier, that being the real name of the young woman who,
carrying the insurgents’ blood-red banner, was hailed by them as the
Goddess of Liberty on their dramatic march. And in like way the tragic
death of Silvere, linked to another hapless prisoner, was founded by
M. Zola on an incident that followed the rising, as recorded by an
eye-witness.”
Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.
An account of the career of Eugene Rougon, the eldest son of Pierre
Rougon (_La Fortune des Rougon_), who went to Paris from Plassans,
becoming involved in the plots which resulted in the _Coup d’Etat_ of
1851 and the return of a Bonaparte to Imperial power. The future
career of Rougon was assured; his services had been too important to be
overlooked, and he ultimately became Minister of State and practically
Vice-Emperor. He fell for a time under the influence of Clorinde Balbi,
the daughter of an Italian adventuress, but realizing the risk of
compromising himself, he shook himself free, and married a lady whose
position in society tended to make his own still more secure. The novel
gives an excellent account of the political and social life of the
Second Empire, and of the cynical corruption which characterized the
period.
In a preface to the English translation (_His Excellency_. London:
Chatto & Windus), Mr. E. A. Vizetelly states that in his opinion,
“with all due allowance for its somewhat limited range of subject, _Son
Excellence Eugene Rougon_ is the one existing French novel which gives
the reader a fair general idea of what occurred in political spheres at
an important period of the Empire. But His Excellency Eugene Rougon
is not, as many critics and others have supposed, a mere portrait or
caricature of His Excellency Eugene Rouher, the famous Vice-Emperor of
history. Symbolism is to be found in every one of Zola’s novels, and
Rougon, in his main lines, is but the symbol of a principle, or, to be
accurate, the symbol of a certain form of the principle of authority.
His face is Rouher’s, like his build and his favorite gesture; but with
Rouher’s words, actions, opinions, and experiences are blended those of
half a dozen other personages. He is the incarnation of that craving,
that lust for power which impelled so many men of ability to throw
all principle to the winds and become the instruments of an abominable
system of government. And his transformation at the close of the story
is in strict accordance with historical facts.”
La Curee.
In this novel Aristide Saccard, who followed his brother Eugene to Paris
in the hope of sharing the spoils of the Second Empire (_La Fortune des
Rougon_), was successful in amassing a vast fortune by speculation in
building-sites. His first wife having died, he married Renee Beraud du
Chatel, a lady of good family, whose dowry first enabled him to throw
himself into the struggle of financial life. In a magnificent mansion
which he built in the Parc Monceau a life of inconceivable extravagance
began. The mushroom society of Paris was at this period the most corrupt
in Europe, and the Saccards soon came to be regarded as leaders in every
form of pleasure. Vast though their fortune was, their expenses were
greater, and a catastrophe was frequently imminent. Renee, satisfied
with prodigality of every kind, entered on an infamous liaison with her
husband’s son, a liaison which Aristide condoned in order to extract
money from his wife. Rene ultimately died, leaving her husband immersed
in his feverish speculations.
The novel gives a powerful though unpleasant picture of Parisian society
in the period which followed the restoration of the Empire in 1851.
L’Argent.
After a disastrous speculation, Aristide Saccard (_La Fortune des
Rougon_ and _La Curee_) was forced to sell his mansion in the Parc
Monceau and to cast about for means of creating a fresh fortune. Chance
made him acquainted with Hamelin, an engineer whose residence in the
East had suggested to him financial schemes which at once attracted
the attention of Saccard. With a view to financing these schemes
the Universal Bank was formed, and by force of advertising became
immediately successful. Emboldened by success, Saccard launched into
wild speculation, involving the bank, which ultimately became insolvent,
and so caused the ruin of thousands of depositors. The scandal was so
serious that Saccard was forced to disappear from France and to take
refuge in Belgium.
The book was intended to show the terrible effects of speculation and
fraudulent company promotion, the culpable negligence of directors, and
the impotency of the existing laws. It deals with the shady underwoods
of the financial world.
Mr. E. A. Vizetelly, in his preface to the English translation (_Money_.
London: Chatto & Windus), suggests that Zola in sketching Saccard,
that daring and unscrupulous financier, “must have bethought himself of
Mires, whose name is so closely linked to the history of Second Empire
finance. Mires, however, was a Jew, whereas Saccard was a Jew-hater, and
outwardly, at all events, a zealous Roman Catholic. In this respect he
reminds one of Bontoux, of Union General notoriety, just as Hamelin the
engineer reminds one of Feder, Bontoux’s associate. Indeed, the history
of M. Zola’s Universal Bank is much the history of the Union General.
The latter was solemnly blessed by the Pope, and in a like way Zola
shows us the Universal receiving the Papal benediction. Moreover, the
second object of the Union General was to undermine the financial power
of the Jews, and in the novel we find a similar purpose ascribed to
Saccard’s Bank. The union, we know, was eventually crushed by the great
Israelite financiers, and this again is the fate which overtakes
the institution whose meteor-like career is traced in the pages of
_L’Argent_.”
La Reve.
Written as a “passport to the Academy,” this novel stands alone among
the Rougon-Macquart series for its pure, idyllic grace. Angelique,
a daughter of Sidonie Rougon (_Le Curee_), had been deserted by her
mother, and was adopted by a maker of ecclesiastical embroideries, who
with his wife lived and worked under the shadow of an ancient cathedral.
In this atmosphere the child grew to womanhood, and as she fashioned the
rich embroideries of the sacred vestments she had a vision of love and
happiness which was ultimately realized, though the realization proved
too much for her frail strength, and she died in its supreme moment. The
vast cathedral with its solemn ritual dominates the book and colours the
lives of its characters.
La Conquete de Plassans.
The heroine of this book is Marthe Rougon, the youngest daughter of
Pierre and Felicite Rougon (_La Fortune des Rougon_), who had inherited
much of the neurasthenic nature of her grandmother Adelaide Fouque. She
married her cousin, Francois Mouret. Plassans, where the Mourets lived,
was becoming a stronghold of the clerical party, when Abbe Faujas, a
wily and arrogant priest, was sent to win it back for the Government.
This powerful and unscrupulous ecclesiastic ruthlessly set aside every
obstacle to his purpose, and in the course of his operations wrecked the
home of the Mourets. Marthe having become infatuated with the priest,
ruined her family for him and died neglected. Francois Mouret, her
husband, who by the machinations of Faujas was confined in an asylum as
a lunatic, became insane in fact, and having escaped, brought about
a conflagration in which he perished along with the disturber of his
domestic peace.
The book contains a vivid picture of the petty jealousies and intrigues
of a country town, and of the political movements which followed the
_Coup d’Etat_ of 1851.
Pot-Bouille.
A study of middle-class life in Paris. Octave, the elder son of Francois
Mouret, has come to the city, where he has got a situation in “The
Ladies’ Paradise,” a draper’s shop carried on by Madame Hedouin, a lady
whom he ultimately marries. The interest of the book centres in a house
in Rue de Choiseul which is let in flats to various tenants, the Vabres,
Duvreyiers, and Josserands among others. The inner lives of these
people, their struggles, their jealousies and their sins, are shown
with an unsparing hand. Under the thin skin of an intense respectability
there is a seething mass of depravity, and with ruthless art Zola has
laid his subjects upon the dissecting-table. Of plot there is little,
but as a terrible study in realism the book is a masterpiece.
An Bonheur des Dames.
Octave Mouret, after his marriage with Madame Hedouin, greatly increased
the business of “The Ladies’ Paradise,” which he hoped would ultimately
rival the _Bon Marche_ and other great drapery establishments in Paris.
While an addition to the shop was in progress Madame Mouret met with an
accident which resulted in her death, and her husband remained a widower
for a number of years. During this time his business grew to such an
extent that his employees numbered many hundreds, among whom was Denise
Baudu, a young girl who had come from the provinces. Mouret fell in
love with her, and she, after resisting his advances for some time,
ultimately married him. The book deals chiefly with life among the
assistants in a great drapery establishment, their petty rivalries
and their struggles; it contains some pathetic studies of the small
shopkeepers of the district, crushed out of existence under the wheels
of Mouret’s moneymaking machine.
La Faute de l’Abbe Mouret.
Serge Mouret, the younger son of Francois Mouret (see _La Conquete de
Plassans_), was ordained to the priesthood and appointed cure of Les
Artaud, a squalid village in Provence, to whose degenerate inhabitants
he ministered with small encouragement. He had inherited the family
taint of the Rougon-Macquarts, which in him took the same form as in the
case of his mother--a morbid religious enthusiasm bordering on hysteria.
Brain fever followed, and bodily recovery left the priest without a
mental past. Dr. Pascal Rougon, his uncle, hoping to save his reason,
removed him from his accustomed surroundings and left him at the
Paradou, the neglected demesne of a ruined mansion-house near Les
Artaud, where he was nursed by Albine, niece of the caretaker. The Abbe
fell in love with Albine, and, oblivious of his vows, broke them. A
meeting with Archangias, a Christian Brother with whom he had been
associated, and a chance glimpse of the world beyond the Paradou, served
to restore his memory, and, filled with horror at himself, he fled from
that enchanted garden. A long mental struggle followed, but in the end
the Church was victorious, and the Abbe returned to her service with
even more feverish devotion than before. Albine, broken-hearted, died
among her loved flowers in the Paradou.
The tale is to some extend an indictment of the celibacy of the
priesthood, though it has to be admitted that the issue is not put quite
fairly, inasmuch as the Abbe was, at the time of his lapse, in entire
forgetfulness of his sacred office. As a whole, the book contains some
of Zola’s best work, and is both poetical and convincing.
Une Page d’Amour.
A tale of Parisian life, in which the principal character is Helene
Mouret, daughter of Mouret the hatter, and sister of Silvere Mouret (_La
Fortune des Rougon_) and Francois Mouret (_La Conquete de Plassans_).
Helene married M. Grandjean, son of a wealthy sugar-refiner of
Marseilles, whose family opposed the marriage on the ground of her
poverty. The marriage was a secret one, and some years of hardship
had followed, when an uncle of M. Grandjean died, leaving his nephew
a substantial income. The couple then moved to Paris with their young
daughter Jeanne, but the day after their arrival Grandjean was seized
with illness from which he died. Helene remained in Paris, though she
had at first no friends there except Abbe Jouve and his half-brother M.
Rambaud. Jeanne had inherited much of the family neurosis, along with
a consumptive tendency derived from her father, and one of her sudden
illnesses caused her mother to make the acquaintance of Doctor Deberle.
An intimacy between the two families followed, which ripened into love
between the doctor and Helene. Events were precipitated by an attempt
on the part of Helene to save Madame Deberle from the consequences of
an indiscretion in arranging an assignation with M. Malignon, with the
result that she was herself seriously compromised in the eyes of Doctor
Deberle and for the first and only time fell from virtue. Jeanne, whose
jealous affection for her mother amounted to mania, was so affected by
the belief that she was not longer the sole object of her mother’s love
that she became dangerously ill and died soon afterwards. This bitter
punishment for her brief lapse killed Helene’s love for Doctor Deberle,
and two years later she married M. Rambaud. As Mr. Andrew Lang has
observed, Helene was a good and pure woman, upon whom the fate of her
family fell.
In writing the book Zola announced that his intention was to make all
Paris weep, and there is no doubt that, though a study in realism, it
contains much that is truly pathetic. The descriptions of Paris under
varying atmospheric aspects, with which each section of the book closes,
are wholly admirable.
Le Ventre de Paris.
A study of the teeming life which surrounds the great central markets
of Paris. The heroine is Lisa Quenu, a daughter of Antoine Macquart (_La
Fortune des Rougon_). She has become prosperous, and with prosperity her
selfishness has increased. Her brother-in-law Florent had escaped from
penal servitude in Cayenne and lived for a short time in her house, but
she became tired of his presence and ultimately denounced him to the
police. The book contains vivid pictures of the markets, bursting with
the food of a great city, and of the vast population which lives
by handling and distributing it. “But it also embraces a powerful
allegory,” writes Mr. E. A. Vizetelly in his preface to the English
translation (_The Fat and the Thin_. London: Chatto & Windus), “the
prose song of the eternal battle between the lean of this world and the
fat--a battle in which, as the author shows, the latter always come off
successful. M. Zola had a distinct social aim in writing this book.”
La Joie de Vivre.
Pauline Quenu (_Le Ventre de Paris_), having been left an orphan, was
sent to live with relatives in a village on the Normandy coast. It was
a bleak, inhospitable shore, and its inhabitants lived their drab,
hopeless lives under the morbid fear of inevitable death. The Chanteaus,
Pauline’s guardians, took advantage of her in every way, and Lazare
Chanteau, her cousin, with whom she fell in love, got from her large
sums of money to carry out wild schemes which he devised. The character
of Pauline is a fine conception; basely wronged and treated with
heartless ingratitude, her hopes blighted and her heart broken, she
found consolation in the complete renunciation of herself for the sake
of those who had so greatly injured her.
“The title selected by M. Zola for this book,” says Mr. E. A. Vizetelly
in his preface to the English translation (_The Joy of Life_. London:
Chatto & Windus), “is to be taken in an ironical or sarcastic sense.
There is no joy at all in the lives of the characters whom he portrays
in it. The story of the hero is one of mental weakness, poisoned by a
constantly recurring fear of death; whilst that of his father is one
of intense physical suffering, blended with an eager desire to continue
living, even at the cost of yet greater torture. Again, the story of the
heroine is one of blighted affections, the wrecking of all which might
have made her life worth living.”
L’Assommoir.
A terrible study of the effects of drink on the moral and social
condition of the working-class in Paris. There is probably no other
work of fiction in which the effects of intemperance are shown with such
grimness of realism and uncompromising force.
Gervaise Macquart, daughter of Antoine Macquart (_La Fortune des
Rougon_), having accompanied her lover Lantier to Paris, taking with her
their two children, was deserted by him a few weeks after their arrival
in the city. She got employment in the laundry of Madame Fauconnier, and
a few months later married Coupeau, a zinc-worker, who, though the son
of drunken parents, was himself steady and industrious. For a while
everything prospered with the Coupeaus; by hard work they were able to
save a little money, and in time a daughter (Nana) was born to them.
Then an accident to Coupeau, who fell from the roof of a house,
brought about a change. His recovery was slow, and left him with
an unwillingness to work and an inclination to pass his time in
neighbouring dram-shops. Meantime Gervaise, with money borrowed from
Goujet, a man who loved her with almost idyllic affection, had started
a laundry of her own. She was successful for a time, in spite of her
husband’s growing intemperance and an increasing desire in herself
for ease and good living; but deterioration had begun, and with the
reappearance of Lantier, her old lover, it became rapid. Coupeau was by
this time a confirmed loafer and drunkard, while Gervaise was growing
careless and ease-loving. Lantier, having become a lodger with the
Coupeaus, ceased doing any work, and as he never paid anything for his
board, his presence not unnaturally hastened the downfall of his hosts.
Circumstances conspired to renew the old relations between Gervaise and
Lantier, and by easy stages she descended that somewhat slippery stair
which leads to ruin. The shop was given up, and she again got employment
in the laundry of Madame Fauconnier, though she was no longer the
capable workwoman of former times. Nana, her daughter, vicious from
childhood, had taken to evil courses; her husband had at least one
attack of delirium tremens; and she herself was fast giving way
to intemperance. The end was rapid. Coupeau died in the asylum of
Sainte-Anne after an illness the description of which is for pure horror
unparalleled in fiction; while Gervaise, after sinking to the lowest
depths of degradation and poverty, died miserably in a garret. The
tragedy of it all is that Gervaise, despite her early lapse with
Lantier, was a good and naturally virtuous woman, whose ruin was
wrought by circumstances and by the operation of the relentless laws of
heredity.
It may be useful to note here that though Zola states in _L’Assommoir_
that Gervaise and Lantier had two sons (Claude, born 1842, and Etienne,
born 1846), he makes a third son (Jacques, born 1844), not elsewhere
mentioned, the hero of _La Bete Humaine_, a subsequent work in the
Rougon-Macquart series.
L’Oeuvre.
A novel dealing with artistic life in Paris towards the close of the
Second Empire.
Claude Lantier, the eldest son of Auguste Lantier and Gervaise Macquart
(_La Fortune des Rougon_ and _L’Assommoir_), had been educated at
Plassans by an old gentleman who was interested in his childish skill in
drawing. His benefactor died, leaving him a sum which yielded an annual
income of a thousand francs, and he came to Paris to follow an artistic
career. There he met Dubuche, Pierre Sandoz, and others of his former
schoolboy friends, and the little band formed a coterie of revolutionary
spirits, whose aim was to introduce new ideas and drastic changes into
the accepted canons of art. Claude attempted to embody his theories in a
picture which he called _Plein Air_ (“Open Air”) in which he went direct
to nature for inspiration, and threw aside all recognized conventions.
The picture was refused by the committee of the _Salon_, and when
subsequently shown at a minor exhibition was greeted with derision by
the public. The artist was in despair, and left Paris with
Christine Hallegrain, a young girl between whom and himself a chance
acquaintanceship had ripened into love. They lived happily in a little
cottage in the country for several years, a son being born to them, but
Claude became restless, and they returned to Paris. Here he gradually
became obsessed by an idea for a great picture, which would show the
truth of his theories and cover his detractors with confusion. By this
time there is no doubt that his mind was becoming affected by repeated
disappointments, and that the family virus was beginning to manifest
itself in him. Everything was now sacrificed to this picture; his little
fortune was gradually encroached on, and his wife and child (he had
married Christine some time after their return to Paris) were frequently
without the necessaries of life. Christine was, however, devoted to her
husband, and did all she could to induce him to leave the picture, which
she saw was increasing his mental disturbance. This was becoming more
serious, and in the death of his child he saw only the subject of a
picture, _L’Enfant Mort_, which was exhibited at the _Salon_ and was
received with even more contempt than _Plein Air_. Despite all the
efforts of Christine, Claude returned to his intended masterpiece, and
one morning, in despair of achieving his aims, hanged himself in front
of the fatal picture.
As a study of artistic life the novel is full of interest. There is
little doubt that the character of Claude Lantier was suggested by that
of Edouard Manet, the founder of the French Impressionist school, with
whom Zola was on terms of friendship. It is also certain that Pierre
Sandoz, the journalist with an idea for a vast series of novels dealing
with the life history of a family, was the prototype of Zola himself.
La Bete Humaine.
A novel dealing with railway life in France towards the close of the
Second Empire. The hero is Jacques Lantier, the second son of Gervaise
Macquart and August Lantier (_La Fortune des Rougon_ and _L’Assommoir_).
When his parents went to Paris with his two brothers, he remained at
Plassans with his godmother, “Aunt Phasie,” who afterwards married
Misard, a railway signalman, by whom she was slowly poisoned to secure
a small legacy which she had concealed. After Jacques had passed
through the School of Arts and Crafts at Plassans he became a railway
engine-driver, and entered the service of the Western Railway Company,
regularly driving the express train between Paris and Havre. He was a
steady man and a competent engineer, but from his early youth he had
been affected by a curious form of insanity, the desire to murder any
woman of whom he became fond. “It seemed like a sudden outburst of blind
rage, an ever-recurring thirst to avenge some very ancient offences,
the exact recollection of which escaped him.” There was also in the
employment of the railway company, as assistant station-master at Havre,
a compatriot of Lantier named Roubaud, who had married Severine Aubry,
the godchild of President Grandmorin, a director of the company. A
chance word of Severine’s roused the suspicions of Roubaud regarding her
former relations with the President, and, driven to frenzy by jealousy,
he compelled her to become his accomplice in the murder of Grandmorin in
an express train between Paris and Havre.
Though slight suspicion fell upon the Roubauds, they were able to
prove an alibi, and as, for political reasons, it was not desired that
Grandmorin’s character should be publicly discussed, the inquiry into
the murder was dropped. By a singular chance, however, Jacques Lantier
had been a momentary witness of the crime, and the Roubauds became aware
of his suspicions. To secure his silence they invited him constantly to
their house, and a liaison with Severine followed. For the first time
Lantier’s blood lust was not aroused; the knowledge that this woman
had killed seemed to constitute her a being apart and sacred. After the
murder of Grandmorin a gradual disintegration of Roubaud’s character set
in, and he became in time a confirmed gambler. His relations with his
wife were ultimately so strained that she induced Lantier to promise to
murder him, in order that they might fly together to America with
the proceeds of a small legacy she had received from Grandmorin. The
arrangements were made, but at the last moment Lantier’s frenzy overtook
him, and it was Severine who was struck down by the knife destined for
her husband. Lantier escaped without suspicion; but Roubaud, who
was found on the scene of the crime under circumstances considered
compromising, was tried, and along with a companion equally innocent,
was sentenced to penal servitude for life. But Nemesis was not distant;
Jacques had aroused the jealous fury of his fireman, Pecqueux, who, one
night in 1870, attacked him as they were driving a train loaded with
soldiers bound for the war. A fierce struggle followed, and in the end
the two men fell from the engine and were cut in pieces beneath the
wheels of the train, which, no longer under control, rushed on into the
darkness with its living freight.
Germinal.
A novel dealing with the labour question in its special relation to
coal-mining. The scene of the book is laid in the north of France at a
time preceding and during a great strike; the hero is Etienne Lantier
(_La Fortune des Rougon_ and _L’Assommoir_). In a moment of passion
Lantier had struck one of his superiors, and having been dismissed from
his employment as an engineer, found it difficult to get work, till,
after drifting from place to place, he eventually became a coal-miner.
The hardships of the life and its miserable remuneration impressed
him deeply, and he began to indoctrinate his comrades with a spirit of
revolt. His influence grew, and he became the acknowledged leader of the
strike which followed. The result was disastrous. After weeks of misery
from cold and hunger the infuriated workmen attempted to destroy one of
the pits, and were fired upon by soldiers sent to guard it. Many were
killed, and the survivors, with their spirits crushed, returned to work.
But worse was yet to come. Souvarine, an Anarchist, disgusted with the
ineffectual struggle, brought about an inundation of the pit, whereby
many of his comrades were entombed. Among them was Lantier, who was,
however, eventually rescued.
As a study of the ever-lasting struggle between capital and labour the
work has no rival in fiction; the miseries and degradation of the mining
class, their tardy revolt against their employers, and their sufferings
from hunger during its futile course, these are the theme, and the
result is a picture of gloom, horrible and without relief.
Nana.
A novel dealing largely with theatrical life in Paris. Nana, the
daughter of Coupeau and Gervaise Macquart his wife (_L’Assommoir_), has
been given a part in a play produced at the Theatre des Varietes, and
though she can neither sing nor act, achieves by the sheer force of
her beauty an overwhelming success. All Paris is at her feet, and she
selects her lovers from among the wealthiest and best born. But her
extravagance knows no bounds, and ruin invariably overtakes those who
yield to her fascination. After squandering vast sums she goes to the
East, and stories spread that she had captivated a viceroy and gained a
great fortune in Russia. Her return to Paris is speedily followed by her
death from small-pox. In this novel the life of the courtesan class is
dealt with by Zola with unhesitating frankness; there are many vivid
studies of theatrical manners; and the racecourse also comes within its
scope. The work was intended to lay bare the canker which was eating
into the social life of the Second Empire and ultimately led to the
_debacle_ of 1870.
La Terre.
This is a novel which treats of the conditions of agricultural life in
France before the war with Prussia, and the subsequent downfall of the
Second Empire. It is, in some respects, the most powerful of all Zola’s
novels, but in dealing with the subject he unfortunately thought it
necessary to introduce incidents and expressions which, from their
nature, must always render it impossible to submit the book in its
entirety to the general English reader.
Its connection with the Rougon-Macquart series is somewhat slight. Jean
Macquart, son of Antoine Macquart and brother of Gervaise (_La Fortune
des Rougon_), having served his time in the Army, came to the plain
of La Beauce, and became an agricultural labourer on the farm of La
Borderie, which belonged to Alexandre Hourdequin. He fell in love with
Lise Mouche, who, however, married Buteau, and Macquart subsequently
married her sister Francoise. Constant quarrels now arose between the
two sisters as to the division of their father’s property, and in
the end Francoise was murdered by her sister. Macquart, tired of the
struggle, decided to rejoin the army, which he did immediately after the
outbreak of war.
The interest of the book is, however, largely connected with the history
of the Fouans, a family of peasants, the senior member of which, having
grown old, divided his land among his three children. The intense and
brutish rapacity of these peasants, their utter lack of any feeling
of morality or duty, their perfect selfishness, not stopping short of
parricide, form a picture of horror unequalled in fiction. It is only to
be regretted that the author, in leaving nothing to the imagination, has
produced a work suitable only for the serious student of sociology.
La Debacle.
In the earlier volumes of the Rougon-Macquart series Zola had dealt with
every phase of life under the Second Empire, and in this novel he tells
the story of that terrific land-slide which overwhelmed the regime. It
is a story of war, grim and terrible; of a struggle to the death between
two great nations. In it the author has put much of his finest work, and
the result is one of the masterpieces of literature. The hero is Jean
Macquart, son of Antoine Macquart and brother of Gervaise (_La Fortune
des Rougon_). After the terrible death of his wife, as told in _La
Terre_, Jean enlisted for the second time in the army, and went through
the campaign up to the battle of Sedan. After the capitulation he was
made prisoner, and in escaping was wounded. When he returned to active
service he took part in crushing the excesses of the Commune in Paris,
and by a strange chance it was his hand that killed his dearest friend,
Maurice Levasseur, who had joined the Communist ranks. _La Debacle_
has been described as “a prose epic of modern war,” and vast though the
subject be, it is treated in a manner that is powerful, painful, and
pathetic.
In the preface to the English translation (_The Downfall_. London:
Chatto & Windus) Mr. E. A. Vizetelly quotes from an interview with Zola
regarding his aim in writing the work. A novel, he says, “contains, or
may be made to contain, everything; and it is because that is my creed
that I am a novelist. I have, to my thinking, certain contributions to
make to the thought of the world on certain subjects, and I have chosen
the novel as the best way of communicating these contributions to the
world. Thus _La Debacle_, in the form of a very precise and accurate
relation of a series of historical facts--in other words, in the form of
a realistic historical novel--is a document on the psychology of France
in 1870. This will explain the enormous number of characters which
figure in the book. Each character represents one _etat d’ame
psychologique_ of the France of the day. If my work be well done, the
reader will be able to understand what was in men’s minds and what was
the bent of men’s minds--what they thought and how they thought at that
period.”
Le Docteur Pascal.
In this, the concluding novel of the Rougon-Macquart series, Zola
gathers together the threads of the preceding volumes and makes a
vigorous defence of his theories of heredity. The story in the book is
both simple and sad. Doctor Pascal Rougon, a medical man at Plassans and
a distinguished student of heredity, had brought up his niece Clotilde
(daughter of Aristide Rougon alias Saccard) from childhood. Years
afterwards they found that they passionately loved one another, but they
did not marry, as Pascal, who had lost money, thought that by doing so
she would sacrifice her interests. (In this connection it is right to
mention that marriage between an uncle and a niece is legal in France,
and is not uncommon.) With fine self-sacrifice Pascal persuaded Clotilde
to go to Paris to live with her brother who was wealthy and wanted her
to nurse him. Soon after her departure Pascal showed symptoms of a
fatal affection of the heart, and after some weeks of great suffering
telegraphed for Clotilde to come back. One hour before her return he
died. His mother, Madame Felicite Rougon, who feared that his researches
on heredity might bring scandal on the family, burned all his papers,
and in one hour destroyed the work of a lifetime. A child was born to
Clotilde seven months after the death of Doctor Pascal; a child which
he intensely desired, in the hope that through it might come the
regeneration and rejuvenation of his race.
Zola, in an interview quoted by Mr. E. A. Vizetelly in the preface to
his translation of _Le Docteur Pascal_ (London: Chatto & Windus), states
that in this book he has been able to defend himself against all the
accusations which have been brought against him. “Pascal’s works on the
members of his family,” says Zola, “is, in small, what I have attempted
to do on humanity, _to show all so that all may be cured_. It is not a
book which, like _La Debacle_, will stir the passions of the mob. It
is a scientific work, the logical deduction and conclusion of all my
preceding novels, and at the same time it is my speech in defence of all
that I have done before the court of public opinion.”