Customer Reviews (3)

The best book of the Rougon-Macquart series
FROM THE PUBLISHER
The Conquest of Plassans (Rougon-Macquart): The Rougon family, in M. Zola's narrative, rises to fortune, and the town of Plassans (really Aix-en-Provence) bows down before its power. But time passes, the revolt of the clergy supervenes, by their influence the town chooses a Royalist Marquis as deputy, and it becomes necessary to conquer it once again. ---Abbé Faujas, by whom this conquest is achieved on behalf of the Empire, is a strongly conceived character, perhaps the most real of all the priests that are scattered through M. Zola's books. No other priestly creation of M. Zola's pen vie with the stern, chaste, authoritative, ambitious Faujas, the man who subdues Plassans, and who wrecks the home of the Mouret family, with whom he lives. The book largely deals with the matter of 'the priest in the house,' and towards the end of the volume Mouret, the husband who has been driven mad and shut up in a lunatic asylum, returns home and wreaks the most terrible vengeance upon those who have wronged him. --- The pages which deal with the madman's escape and his horrible revenge are certainly among the most powerful that M. Zola has ever written, and have been commended for their effectiveness by several of his leading critics. --- (Ernest Alfred Vizetelly)

A hidden treasure
This is the fourth novel in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series about life during the Second Empire in France. Unfortunately, it is a lesser-known work, long out-of-print (though one can find it in ebook form now). While this book is not one of Zola's masterworks, it certainly doesn't deserve the level of obscurity into which it has fallen. The story takes place in the fictional town of Plassans, in Provence. A new priest comes to town, Abbé Faujas, and he and his mother rent a room in the home of the Mourets (Francois Mouret of the Macquart family, and his wife Marthe Rougon). At first stand-offish and shy, Abbé Faujas soon learns the amount of social and political influence that a clergyman can wield in a small town, and he starts to get more and more involved in the affairs of Plassans. He also starts to insinuate himself more and more into the lives of his landlords, much to the chagrin of Francois Mouret. It's an election year, and as various politicians and church officials play a kind of chess game for the votes of Plassans, the once meek and mild Abbé becomes more power-hungry. Is it possible his previous mild-mannered behavior was just an act to conceal a hidden political agenda? This book has a light-hearted satirical tone overall; it's not one of Zola's deep, philosophical works. Those who have read The Fortune of the Rougons will enjoy the depiction of Plassans, and the further development of some of the characters that appeared in that first book. The characters are engaging and the plot has some surprises in it. Zola seems to have had fun writing it, and it is a fun ride for the reader.

Election intrigue in France's deep south
A superb step-by-step account of how to win the hearts and minds of the voters in a small country town. An atmosphere of brooding menace pervades the book as a "creeping Jesus" of a priest is brought in to swingthe forthcoming election in favour of the government party. The shortchapters make the book highly readable and wind up the tensionmarvellously. The one person who sees through the priest is powerless toact as his house and his whole life are gradually taken over - until thefinal cataclysmic scene when .... but I won't spoil it all by telling youwhat happens. A merciless and meticulous portrayal of the intrigues in asmall French provincial town that deserves to be much better known than itis, this early work forms a pair with the following volume (number five) inthe Rougon-Macquart saga "La Faute De L'Abbé Mouret/The Sin Of FatherMouret". The subject matter may not be attractive, but Zola has madeit compelling reading. ... Read more

Book Description
References to clothing in the nineteenth-century naturalist novel have traditionally been read merely as examples of descriptive detail. Thompson, in her groundbreaking study on Zola, rescues clothing from the margins of representation, and draws on a wide range of twentieth-century feminist and queer theory to demonstrate that clothing troubles such binary pairs as 'masculine' and 'feminine', 'normal' and 'perverse', 'natural' and 'artificial' that lie at the foundations of Zolian naturalism. The author's investment in the signifying power of clothing in the Rougon-Macquart is such that the novels can no longer be read as unproblematic illustrations of literary naturalism; in fact its intensity demands that Zola's relationship to literature and his descriptions of Second Empire society be reassessed. ... Read more

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'His Masterpiece,' which in the original French bears the title of \iL'Oeuvre\i, is a strikingly accurate story of artistic life in Paris during the latter years of the Second Empire. Amusing at times, extremely pathetic and even painful at others, it not only contributes a necessary element to the Rougon-Macquart series of novels - a series illustrative of all phases of life in France within certain dates - but it also represents a particular period of M. Zola's own career and work. Some years, indeed, before the latter had made himself known at all widely as a novelist, he had acquired among Parisian painters and sculptors considerable notoriety as a revolutionary art critic, a fervent champion of that 'Open-air' school which came into being during the Second Empire, and which found its first real master in Edouard Manet, whose then derided works are regarded, in these later days, as masterpieces. Manet died before his genius was fully recognised; still he lived long enough to reap some measure of recognition and to see his influence triumph in more than one respect among his brother artists. Indeed, few if any painters left a stronger mark on the art of the second half of the nineteenth century than he did, even though the school, which he suggested rather than established, lapsed largely into mere impressionism - a term, by the way, which he himself coined already in 1858; for it is an error to attribute it - as is often done - to his friend and junior, Claude Monet.

It was at the time of the Salon of 1866 that M. Zola, who criticised that exhibition in the \iEvenement\i newspaper,* first came to the front as an art critic, slashing out, to right and left, with all the vigour of a born combatant, and championing M. Manet - whom he did not as yet know personally - with a fervour born of the strongest convictions. He had come to the conclusion that the derided painter was being treated with injustice, and that opinion sufficed to throw him into the fray; even as, in more recent years, the belief that Captain Dreyfus was innocent impelled him in like manner to plead that unfortunate officer's cause. When M. Zola first championed Manet and his disciples he was only twenty-six years old, yet he did not hesitate to pit himself against men who were regarded as the most eminent painters and critics of France; and although (even as in the Dreyfus case) the only immediate result of his campaign was to bring him hatred and contumely, time, which always has its revenges, has long since shown how right he was in forecasting the ultimate victory of Manet and his principal methods. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Masterpiece from a french point of view
Hi, first, you have to know that I have read the book in french so I got the direct style from Emile Zola. I've noticed that there's nothing about the Masterpiece by Zola. It's a story of a painter, who is creating one of the new styles of the 19th, and his difficulties with other painters. It's the explicit subject, but this book is mostly about the passion some artists have in life, and some others who've accepted the rules of society. You will experiment in this book the delight of creation but also the destruction of the human in creation. If you're interested in impressionism you should read this book, the historic point of view will interest you a lot since the writer has been a witness of great french painters, but if u get the message of this book, which is the essence of life, u'll really have a wonderful moment reading it.
Sorry for my bad english.
Sincerely,
GaFIR777
(Hope you'll read it Oracle242) ... Read more

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Emile Zola was born in Paris, April 2, 1840. His father was Francois Zola, an Italian engineer, who constructed the Canal Zola in Provence. Zola passed his early youth in the south of France, continuing his studies at the Lycee St. Louis, in Paris, and at Marseilles. His sole patrimony was a lawsuit against the town of Aix. He became a clerk in the publishing house of Hachette, receiving at first the modest honorarium of twenty-five francs a week. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Greatstudy of a neurosis and its social consequences
Chronolgically, A Love Episode (Une Page d'amour) is the 8th volume of the Rougon-Macquart series. There can be no doubt in the mind of the judicial critic that in the pages of "A Love Episode" the reader finds more of the poetical, more of the delicately artistic, more of the subtle emanation of creative and analytical genius, than in any other of Zola's works... In all literature there is nothing like the portrayal of the punishment of Helene Grandjean. Helene and little Jeanne are reversions of type. The old "neurosis," seen in earlier bran-ches of the family, reappears in these characters. Readers of the series will know where it began. Poor little Jeanne, most pathetic of creations, is a study in abnormal jealousy, a jealousy which seems to be clairvoyant, full of supernatural intuitions, turning everything to suspicion, a jealousy which blights and kills. Could the memory of those weeks of anguish fade from Helene's soul? This dying of a broken heart is not merely the figment of a poet's fancy. It has happened in real life. The coming of death, save in the case of the very aged, seems, nearly always, brutally cruel, at least to those friends who survive. (C. C. Starkweather)

A Transitional Novel
To those who have read George Sand it would seem that the plot of "Page d'Amour/Love Episode" is more akin to George Sand's and not Zola's novels (if to disregard a somewhat heavy-handed style of writing typical of Zola). George Sand's novels, however, usually have a happy ending. There are exceptions still; for example those who have read a lot of George Sand would recall that the ending of "Indiana" is somewhat bittersweet. The ending of"Page d'Amour/Love Episode" is also bittersweet in a sense that Helene Grandjean's daughter dies, but Helene marries the man who loves her.

The story is still too trite. Even historians say that Zola, who himself called this novel "syrupy", wrote it to quiet the critics, who accused him of scavenging dirty themes in "l'Assommoir/the Drum Shop".Lastly, it is important to note that after "Page d'Amour/Love Episode" Zola went on to "scavenge" another dirty theme in the novel "Nana".

The not-so-merry widow
A frantic young widow seeks a doctor during the night for her sick daughter and stumbles across her next-door neighbour. Returning to thank him, she is befriended by the doctor's wife. But gradually the doctor comesto love the widow for her calm and dignity and turns away from his societyhostess of a wife - with ultimately tragic consequences. A well-craftedstory with short chapters and leaning heavily on character portrayal forits effect. Very untypical Zola, the novel seems to be written as abreathing space between "L'Assommoir" and "Nana" tocash in on Zola's new-found fame, avoid being typecast as a muck-racker andto show that even respectable, well-off people living in a prosperousneighbourhood and minding their own business can be waylaid and thrown intoturmoil by love's passion. The story also ties up a loose end in a minorbranch of the Rougon-Macquart dynasty, though the heroine ultimatelyreceives less drastic treatment from the author than her two brothers. Theimpression from this book is more that of the "stiff upper lip"than the "blood and guts" you normally expect from Zola and it isprobably the best of this type in the 20-novel cycle. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Long, and mostly about french people.
Mostly about french people and long ... Read more

Book Description
This is a new introduction to Zola's masterpiece, published amid controversy in 1876-7. L'Assommoir is analyzed as a social and political novel, as a representative work of literary naturalism, and in the context of its repercussions in the history of the novel. Professor Baguley investigates its complex and sometimes ambiguous themes, its literary structures and its technical innovativeness. He provides a synthesis of the best research and criticism of the novel together with new insights into its interpretations. The biographical and historical context is given, and there is a guide to further reading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

this is one amazing book, and I recommend it very much.
This is a wonderful book about a very difficult era in France.It talks about the problems of everyday life, the pains and betrayals in love, and it also explores human nature.It's a great book, and I sincerelyrecommend anyone who speaks french to read it.I can guarantee that youwill not regret it!Thanks again to my great french instructor MmeLavocat-Dubuis for helping me understand this story and making meappreciate it!! ... Read more

James Lord
Frederick Brown, in his modest and superlative way, has written the great novelists' biography as Zola himself might have aspired to write one of his own finest novels. His book is a meticulous, expertly crafted entity that gathers strength from strength as it goes along toward its dramatic denouement, its length adding to the cumulative passion and moral importance of the whole work. This is a momentous achievement. Enthralling!Book Description

Among the short list of authors whose lives were as exciting as their books, Emile Zola is one of the most eminent. Bestselling author of a series of novels, close companion of C& eacute;zanne and Manet, critic of politicians, clergy, bankers, and businessmen, he acted with a courage that earned him enduring fame when he took on the most venerable of all institutions: the military. But, climactic as it was, the Dreyfus Affair was only the most famous of events in Zola's tumultuous life. In this detailed biography, Frederick Brown discloses Zola's development as an author, and the moral consciousness that led him to invest himself in one social and political problem after another. Brown also shows Zola's human side--his failings, his superstitions, his private joys and dilemmas. At a time when a career could be made by a well-timed review or be broken by a rebuttal, Zola carved out his place in the literary pantheon through a series of struggles against ever more powerful enemies.

Customer Reviews (1)

Not an easy read, but worth the effort
I came to this book after having read Zola's twenty Rougon-Macquart novels. I wanted to read the most comprehensive, authoritative biography of the great writer, and I think this book qualifies. The level of detail is tremendous. Brown not only provides us with the story of Zola's life, but also the lives of his many contemporaries (including Cezanne, Flaubert, Turgenev, Goncourt, Manet). In addition Brown puts these lives in valuable perspective by thoroughly examining the events of French history, which, during Zola's life consisted of a very complicated series of wars, revolutions, and political upheavals. (Before reading this biography, it helps the reader to have a basic preliminary knowledge of French history in order to navigate the serpentine rise and fall of governments.)
Brown also examines Zola's writings from a critical perspective, and draws a complex web of literary influence to and from the author. For every novel that Zola published, Brown provides a detailed synopsis of the story (spoilers included), a critical analysis of the work, and valuable information on the critical and public reception of the book. Brown seems to grow tired of this, however, as books described in the beginning of Zola's life are more thoroughly examined than his later works. I myself got a little tired of Brown's constant Freudian analysis. "Zola did this because of his father. He did this because of his mother." It's as if Brown lacks confidence in the intelligence of his readers, and feels the need to relentlessly push his thesis on us.
This book is not an easy read. It is a scholarly work, written for an audience of literature professors, not for the casual reader. The beginning of the book is particularly challenging. When discussing Zola's education and literary influences, brown rattles off references to a lot of titles that most readers outside academia probably have not read. In every other sentence he'll throw in metaphors pertaining to obscure classical literature. Once over this intial hump, the reading goes more smoothly and one becomes accustomed to Brown's particular wordcraft. (He uses the word "tergiversations" about once in every chapter.)
Another problem with the book is that there is a period of Zola's life that just isn't very interesting. Brown's depiction of Zola's early hardscrabble career as a journalist, critic, and part-time novelist is particularly fascinating, but once Zola strikes it rich the excitement dies down quite a bit. While seclusion in a country house made it possible for Zola to create some of his greatest masterpieces, it doesn't make for the most exciting narrative. This is rectified late in Zola's life, however, by the Dreyfus affair. Brown's relation of the events surrounding the scandal are rewardingly exhaustive, covering at least 150 pages.
Despite my complaints, I'd have to say that I'm glad I read this book. I wanted to read "Everything You Wanted to Know about Emile Zola", and that's what I got. Something else I got from this book is a long wish list of books for future reading, by Zola and other authors discussed in the book. ... Read more

Book Description

Emile Zola was a French novelist and exponent of Naturalism, as well as a noted political liberal. Half of Zola's novels were a set of twenty called Les Rougon-Macquart, set in France's Second Empire. It traces two branches of a single family over a period of generations. The Fat and the Thin is the third novel of Zola's twenty volume Rougon-Macquart series.

Customer Reviews (4)

New translation!
This is not a review, but news:
Oxford World Classics is set to release a new translation in November 2007, under the title "The Belly of Paris"
ISBN: 978-0-19-280633-8

One of the best of Zola's Rougon-Macquart books
This is a great book about the life around Les Halles in 19th century Paris. It looks like there is no other translation than this one by Ernest Vizetelly from over 100 years ago (correct me if I am wrong). Therefore, when another reviewer below writes "but there are several mistakes in translation" and "there is an entire section in which the translator removed a description of Zola's, because he thinks the English audience wouldn't be interested", then this is certainly correct, but as long as nobody translates this book again, we will have to live with this. And the reader should not forget that E. Vizetelly was Zola's "official" translator, his translations were the only ones authorized by Zola, they knew each other personally very well and helped each other during hard times, and some of the old-worldish British 19th century linguistic charme that Vizetelly used for this translation (and his other Rougon-Macquart translations) cannot be reproduced by any modern, 21st century translator. His Zola translations are classics, with all their faults!

Great Book with Bad Translation/Print
I am unsure if this book is available in English trans from someone other than Ed Vit. and Mondial book publishers, but there are several mistakes in translation that are more oversights and bad editing than any real translational problem between English/French. As well, there is an entire section in which the translator removed a description of Zola's, because he thinks the English audience wouldn't be interested. Incase he's reading this, I was interested. Zola is an excellent observer, that's part of the charm of his writing, his fabulous descriptions that allow the reader to nearly take part in an event for which they were not present, the descriptions are so detailed and interesting. To have instead an astrisk by Ed telling me at the bottom of the page that my sentiments couldn't take the brutal description...if there isn't a new translation, there needs to be one and a better edited version too!

That said, of course, even shoddy trans and editing mistakes can't ruin Zola. I am half way through and just like all others this novel immediately presents great characters that make you curious for more and keep you hooked until the end!!

Just Awesome!
Naturalism at its best.Zola never fails to ignite the senses with his amazingly gritty sense of prose.I can't get enough of him! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Pure, idyllic grace
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 (La 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...
The vast cathedral with its solemn ritual dominates the book and colours the lives of its characters. (J. G. Patterson) ... Read more

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Je veux expliquer comment une famille, un petit groupe d'êtres, se comporte dans une société, en s'épanouissant pour donner naissance à dix, à vingt individus qui paraissent, au premier coup d'oeil, profondément dissemblables, mais que l'analyse montre intimement liés les uns aux autres. L'hérédité a ses lois, comme la pesanteur. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Early days - but the boy shows promise
If you've never read Zola at all, don't start with "Fortune". Read one of two of the "masterpieces" first to get an idea of the man's true worth. Then come back to this book. Its main interest is as a"who's who" of Zola's characters, a family tree, a quickrefresher when you read later novels in the Rougon-Macquart cycle. Comparedto the later works, it seems to be written too much to a formula. Very mucha "warm-up" exercise for the author's social and historicalproject. Chapters and descriptions are far too long and the effect ofenvironment on human character - a favourite theme of the naturalists - isoften unclear. The shallowness of those who seize political power is fairlywell portrayed, though less skillfully than in Zola's later offerings. Hismain themes are all here but in embryonic form. He's groping his way.Fortunately, he didn't give up and battled on until he hit the jackpot withlucky number seven. Frankly, the book is only for hardened Zola nuts, whoknow where the man's heading. But it was intended to be an introduction toa cycle, and if you read it on those terms it's just about OK. A sort ofboot camp. The Z-boy does show some promise here, and there's already a bigimprovement in book number two. So grit your teeth and stick with it. ... Read more

Book Description
In Zola's 1873 tale, a prisoner who's escaped and taken refuge in Paris gets caught up in aSocialist cell -- and sees a Paris not to be found elsewhere. One of Zola's own favorites, Paris is a truly brillianttale -- it shows us the city's underbelly, both figuratively and literally, for we see the enormous market (built in the 1850s) into which flowed great rivers of of food -- and from which flowed sewers of blood and putrefaction. This is a brilliant tale, and one as alive and memorable today as it was when Zola wrote it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A turn of the century thriller that shouldn't be missed.
Paris is the third volume of the Three Cities trilogy that began with Lourdes and continued with Rome. Published in 1898, Paris is Zola's summation of the 19th Century and his predictions and hopes for the 20thCentury. In this work Zola gives a splendid portrayal of social life inParis at the end of the century. He takes us into the lives of men andwomen of the upper classes, the working class, and even revolutionaryAnarchists. This work is of particular interest to readers today who facethe future of a new Milennium since Zola looks at the accomplishments ofhis century and projects his hopes for a new century ruled by Reason andJustice. We can see how we of the 20th Century have failed and succeeded inbringing Zola's vision of the future to life. Zola spent his careerportraying the 19th Century France through the lives of his characters. Inthis final work of the Century, he uses his story telling powers to createa portrait of the time through the lives of his characters. ... Read more

Book Description
Emile Zola was an elegant writer -- more elegant than his reputation as a political firebrand might suggest. Zola's most famous work was a newspaper article: his impassioned defense of imprisoned Captain Alfred Dreyfus, "J'accuse." Rome is the second volume of The Three Cities (Les Trois Villes), first published in 1896. The first volume tells of the troubled priest Pierre Froment's journey to Lourdes, hoping to find a cure for his spiritual doubts. In Rome, Pierre travels to the Holy City, hoping to persuade the Pope to approve of his Christian, socialist theories. The final book of the trilogy, Paris, tells of Pierre's return to the City of Light, watching the fall of Catholicism, and the rise of Pierre's new "faith" of scientific rationalism. A continuation of Zola's great twenty-novel sequence, Les Rougon-Macquart, among which are Nana, Germinal, and La Débâcle, Rome is a book written by Zola at the end of his career, during which his powers were thought to be at their highest. ... Read more