Series: Les Rougon-macquart
by Author Émile Zola
La Taberna (2004)
La Curée (1984)
This is the first classic novel I've delved into for about three months. As much as I like newer novels, this was like a breath of fresh air. This was a better novel than "His Excellency Eugene Rougon" and about as good or better than "The Fortune of the Rougons."This paragraph is for a minor s...
La Débâcle (2000)
As you might expect with Zola, this is a masterpiece of a novel encompassing the personal and political, during the French defeat at Sedan and the Paris Commune. I picked this largely because I have read little about the Commune and even less about Sedan and this seemed like an oversight. The Com...
La Conquête de Plassans (1999)
I read the English translation by Brian Rhys, published (as 'A Priest in the House') by Elek in 1957, long out of print but easy to track down on e-bay and the like. At the time of writing this is the only English translation available aside from the public domain Vizetelly, which I wanted to avo...
The Fortune of the Rougons (1985)
This work, which will comprise several episodes, is therefore, in my mind, the natural and social history of a family under the Second Empire. And the first episode, here called The Fortune of the Rougons, should scientifically be entitled The Origin.Author's Preface (1871)When I discovered that...
The Earth (1980)
The EarthEmile ZolaAccording to the book's back cover, Zola regarded this as his greatest novel. As a humble reader of Zola, I'd put it behind Germinal, Nana, Debacle, Ladies' Paradise and Belly of Paris. But, being a work of Zola, it's still a gritty and thought-provoking look at 19th century li...
Germinal (2004)
When I noticed, over on the Classics Circuit blog, that the April tours would focus on French Alexandre Dumas and Emile Zola, it seemed like a great opportunity to continue with my pledge to read more literature in French, and expose myself to the father of French naturalism, whose work I had nev...
The Ladies' Paradise (2008)
3.5 starsI imagine a bewildered Émile Zola wandering into the crowds populating that new phenomenon that took Paris merchandising in the 19th century by storm - mass production and the birth of the superstore. He enters through the widely opened arms of polished French doors, having to blink tear...
The Belly of Paris (2006)
I was so happy to finish this piece of Zola's Rougon-Macquart epic as quickly as I usually tear through his books, especially because I'm having so much trouble getting through La Fortune des Rougon. This is no l'Assommoir or Nana, but Le Ventre de Paris falls nicely in place within the series, a...