LITMIR.BIZ

The tenth novel in the Rougon-Macquart series by Émile Zola, «Pot Luck (Pot-Bouille)» was first published in serially format in the periodical «Le Gaulois» between January and April 1882. The title of the work, Pot-Bouille, is a 19th-century French slang term for a large cooking pot used for preparing stews. It is a term that really has not direct translation in English. The title of the novel which recounts the activities of the residents of a block of flats in the Rue de Choiseul over the course of two years is meant to reflect the greed, ambition and depravity which lie beneath a thin veil of upstanding moral character. The residents of this block of flats are comprised of principally five families: The Campardons, The Duveyriers, The Josserands, The Vabres, and The Pichons. New resident 22-year-old Octave Mouret who has taken a salesman's job at a nearby shop, moves into the building and causes a stir as he pursues the married women of the community.

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Emile Zola (1840-1902) is perhaps the most important French writer of the 19th century. Zola dramatically shaped the course of French literature through the development of naturalism, characterized by the unsentimental and realistic portrayal of middle and lower class French life. His twenty novel cycle «Les Rougon-Macquart» is epic in scope, often drawing comparisons to the prolific output of Balzac. Here, in his 1888 «Le Rêve» («The Dream») we encounter the sixteenth installment of the cycle. This tale tells the story of the young orphan Angélique Marie. Enchanted by stories of heraldry and sainthood, she dreams of being swept away by a brave prince. Her fairy-tale wish works its way into her life when she falls in love with Félicien d'Hautecœur, a member of a noble family with deep roots. Their affair becomes tumultuous, however Félicien's father contests their relationship. «The Dream» is a fine work which fits neatly into Zola's expansive and varied oeuvre—a tale that truly demonstrates his naturalism and breadth of characterization.

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Emile Zola wrote the following in the preface of his first installment to the Rougon-Macquart series: «The characteristic of the Rougon-Macquart family, the group which I propose to study, is their unbridled passions, that great revolutionizing element of our age, inciting to excessive self-indulgence. Physiologically speaking, these appetites are the gradual outcome of certain nervous and sanguineous modifications which manifest themselves in a race of beings, as a consequence of some previous organic lesion, and which determine the sentiments, the desires, the passions of each individual of the race according to his surroundings; in short, all those natural and instinctive manifestations of human nature, which, in their results, assume the conventional names of virtues and vices… This work, which will comprise several episodes, embodies in my mind the natural and social history of a family under the Second Empire. And the first episode, 'The Fortune of the Rougons,' may, for scientific purposes, be very aptly entitled 'The Origin.'» The monumental work of Zola's magnum opus begins here in this volume which is drawn from the unexpurgated 1886 translation of Henry Vizetelly.

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"Abbé Mouret's Transgression" (La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret), written in 1874, is perhaps the most powerful and poetic of all Zola's tales; it is that in which fantasy bears the greatest part, and in which «naturalisme» for a while disappears. The opening chapters describe a profligate and almost pagan village in Provence, and here «naturalisme» is at home, and in its proper place. The fifth novel in Zola's «Rougon-Macquart» series, «Abbé Mouret's Transgression» is the sequel to «The Conquest of Plassans,» in which we are first introduced to the main character, the neurotic young priest Serge Mouret. He becomes the parish priest for the village of Artauds, where the villagers have no interest in religion. This test to his faith brings the priest to a nervous breakdown. As he begins to recover he finds that he has lost all memory of who or where he is. This novel pits the faith of religion against the universal desires of love and sexuality. Presented here in this edition is the «Suppressed English Edition» originally published in France in the late 19th century.

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Widely acknowledged as one of Emile Zola's masterpieces, «L'Assommoir» is a novel immersed in the harsh poverty and relief-giving alcoholism of working-class Paris in the nineteenth century. At the heart of Zola's shockingly realistic descriptions is Gervaise, a mother abandoned by her lover who must learn to survive alone on what she can earn. When she marries the abstemious roof-worker Coupeau and manages to open her own laundry, life is for a while successful and happy. Unfortunately, Coupeau is seriously injured shortly after the birth of their daughter Anna, and his plunge into heavy drinking soon proves ruinous for the entire family. A contemporary commercial triumph, Zola's novel sparked discussion and criticism in both the social and literary realms, establishing the author's international reputation for a masterful use of the French language that devastatingly depicted the tragedy of realism.

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A tense, psychological thriller set upon the railway between Paris and Le Havre in the 19th century, «The Beast Within (La Bête Humaine)», Émile Zola's 1890 novel, is the story of Jacques Lantier, an engine driver on the railroad and the titular «Beast.» Lantier is driven mad by the desire to kill a woman, however when he has the opportunity to do so, he stops himself. Later following the incident he discovers the brutal murder of Grandmorin, one of the directors of the railway company. An investigation ensues and Jacques Lantier involvement in it quells his homicidal desire. Jacques-Louis Lantier is the great grandson of Antoine Macquart and the familial link that makes «The Beast Within (La Bête Humaine)» part of Zola's brilliant collection of novels and stories, «Les Rougon-Macquart.» Noted for its realistic portrayal of French society in the Victorian era the «Rougon-Macquart» series stands as a hallmark of French literature.

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Considered one of the masterpieces of world-renowned naturalist Emile Zola, «Nana» is his finely written work on the demimonde of France's failing Second Empire. A symbolically compounded novel, it follows the rise and fall of Nana, a street-walking prostitute who becomes an actress at the Théâtre des Variétés. Though apparently independent and self-confident in her role of 'high-class cocette,' Nana envies the material possessions of the people around her, and the series of besotted men, and occasionally women, whom she betrays and ruins are a testament to her selfishness and vanity. What is surprising is Zola's genius in creating the strength and generosity of Nana, the elemental goodness in an unintelligent woman who can't seem to prevent herself from initiating chaos. Though she advances through society, she ultimately only manages to fall from greater heights, taking on an almost mythical quality even as she remains eminently realistic.

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The fourteenth novel in a twenty book series collectively entitled, «Les Rougon-Macquart, L'Œuvre» was first translated into English in 1886, the title having since been rendered «The Masterpiece». Set in France's Second Empire, the story of naturalist painter Claude Lantier is believed to be a highly fictionalized account of Zola's friendship with the painter Paul Cézanne. The fictional artist of Zola's Bohemian world, Lantier, strives to complete a great work that will reflect his own talent and genius as a revolutionary, but struggles greatly in living up to his artistic potential. The story was perhaps too personal for Cézanne, whose correspondence with Zola ended immediately after the novel's publication. Nevertheless, this story of the misunderstood artist, brilliant but scorned by the intolerant art-going public and their unwillingness to abandon traditional practices, epitomizes the attitudes of Bohemian Revolutionaries and the nineteenth century era of French Naturalism.

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"The Downfall (La Débâcle)" is Émile Zola’s 1892 novel, the penultimate in the Rougon-Macquart series, which is a story set against the background of the Franco-Prussian War, the Battle of Sedan and the Paris Commune, events that led to the end of the reign of Napoléon III and the Second French Empire in 1870. The novel follows Jean Macquart, a corporal in the French army corps, as they are driven back by the Prussians deeper and deeper into France. The tone of the novel is a somber one as Zola masterfully depicts the demoralization of the French soldiers as they face the prospect of almost certain defeat and the severe and brutal consequences that the war plays upon the soldiers and civilians who must suffer through it. «The Downfall» is a classic and tragic work which provides a dramatic first hand perspective to an important time in French history.

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The first major work of the father of French Naturalism, «Thérèse Raquin» is the shocking initial success of Zola's impressive writing career. Published in 1867, the plot revolves around a young woman, Thérèse, who is unhappily married to her cousin Camille, largely due to her domineering, if well-intentioned, aunt, Madame Raquin. After moving the little family to Paris, the selfish Camille meets up with an old friend, Laurent, who quickly becomes Thérèse's lover. The terrible lengths the two of them go to be together eventually become their undoing, proving them to be the 'human beasts' that Zola scientifically observed for temperament in his grisly experimental novel. A sinister story of adultery and murder in lower class Parisian society, «Thérèse Raquin» is a dreadfully realistic novel that remains one of Zola's most masterful works.

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