J. G Patterson

“ She was the widow of a notary, and lived quietly at Fondettes, an old family property near Orleans, but had retained a house in Paris in Rue de Richelieu. She had been an old friend of the Marquise de Chouard, and was on intimate terms with her daughter, the Comtesse Sabine. A woman of high principles, she believed that one should overlook much in others in order that something might be pardoned in oneself. In this she contrasted strongly with her old friend the Marquis de Chouard, who professed the most rigorous virtue while he secretly lived a shameful life. ”

“ ALBINE, niece of Jeanbernat, keeper of the Paradou, a neglected demesne in Provence. Her father had ruined himself and committed suicide when she was nine years old, and she then came to live with her uncle. She grew up in that vast garden of flowers, herself its fairest, almost in ignorance of the world outside, and when Abbe Mouret came to the Paradou forgetful of his past, she loved him unconsciously from the first. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ At the request of Severine, Jacques promised to kill Roubaud, her husband, whom she had come to hate; but, though all the preparations were made, it was Severine herself whom he killed, in an accession of that homicidal rage which he imagined he had conquered. He escaped all suspicion, and calmly allowed Roubaud and Cabuche to be punished for the crime. In order to see whether the murder of Severine had cured him of his blood lust, he made love to Philomene Sauvagnat, thereby arousing the jealousy of her lover, Pecqueux, who was stoker on the engine driven by Lantier. ”

“ 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. ”

“ He intended to bring up Henri as a designer of ornaments for his own trade, and when the boy showed higher ambitions, taking to painting proper and talking about the School of Art, there were quarrels, blows, a series of falling-outs and reconciliations. Even when the young man had achieved some success, the manufacturer of artistic zincwork, while resigned to letting him have his will, treated him harshly, like a lad who was spoiling his career. ”

“ Scarcely a year had elapsed before the widow took as her lover a man named Macquart, who lived in a hovel adjoining her own property, and two children were born. The legitimate son, Pierre Rougon, was brought up along with his half brother and sister, Antoine and Ursule, with whom, however, he was not on good terms. From her eighteenth year Adelaide was subject to nervous fits, which brought on convulsions, and though she was not yet insane, these repeated shocks produced cerebral disorders. “She lived from day to day like a child; like a fawning animal yielding to its instincts.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ Then came L’Assommoir, and with it fame and fortune for the writer. It is a terrible story of working-class life in Paris, a study of the ravages wrought by drink. Again to quote Mr. Andrew Lang, “It is a dreadful but not an immoral book. It is the most powerful temperance tract that ever was written. As M. Zola saw much of the life of the poor in his early years, as he once lived, when a boy, in one of the huge lodging-houses he describes, one may fear that L’Assommoir is a not untruthful picture of the lives of many men and women in Paris.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ With his men he was unpopular, and, not caring for his profession, he did not readily adapt himself to the necessities of war. In the march to the Meuse he lost his baggage, and arrived at Sedan in a pitiable condition, his uniform soiled, his face and hands dirty. In former days at Charleville he had been on intimate terms with Gilberte Maginot, whom he now found at Sedan, married to Jules Delaherche. Their former relations were renewed for the moment, and next day Beaudoin rejoined his company, astonishing every one by the neatness of his attire. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To Zola the voice of science conveyed the word of ultimate truth, and with desperate earnestness he set out to apply its methods to literary production. His position was that the novelist is, like the scientist, an observer and an experimentalist combined. The observer, he says, gives the facts as he has observed them, fixes the starting-point, lays the solid ground on which his characters are to walk and his phenomena to develop. ”

“ But Paris only completed their separation, for she immediately threw herself into all the luxurious follies of the period. During the ten years spent there she carried on an open intrigue with a man whose desertion nearly killed her. It was then that her husband accepted the management of the Montsou mines, still hoping that his wife might be changed down there in that desolate black country. When the great strike of miners broke out he at first minimized its seriousness, thinking that it would not last a week. ”

“ Her daughter Jeanne was far from strong, having inherited much of the hereditary neurosis of her mother’s family, along with a consumptive tendency from that of her father. A sudden illness of the girl led to an acquaintance with Doctor Deberle, and this ripened into love between him and Helene, though considerations of duty kept them apart. Meantime, Helene had discovered the beginnings of an intrigue between Madame Deberle and M. Malignon, and in order to break it off was herself placed in such a compromising position towards Doctor Deberle that he became her lover. ”

“ She brought up her family without love, and as if she resented their requiring even the simple necessaries of life. She did not long survive the division of land by her husband. Her favouritism for Hyacinthe, her elder son, excited the jealousy of Buteau, who in the course of a quarrel threw her to the ground, when she received such injuries that she died a few hours afterwards. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Having come to Paris with an intense hatred of romanticism, he was struck by the artistic possibilities of the Halles Centrales, the great provision markets of Paris, which he haunted in search of subjects for his brush. He was induced by Florent to attend one of the republican meetings in Lebigre’s cafe, but was not in sympathy with the movement, and declined to take part in it. He occasionally visited his aunt, Madame Lisa Quenu, but revolted against her complete indifference to art, and her middle-class selfishness. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Jacques found them later, living in Normandy at Croix-de-Maufras on the line to Havre, where Misard was signalman, and his wife had charge of the level crossing. It was a miserable existence, without neighbours or any one to speak to, without even anything to look at, except the trains constantly rushing past. Aunt Phasie, as she had always been called by Jacques Lantier, was a tall, handsome woman, but since her second marriage she had aged so rapidly that at forty-five she looked over sixty. The truth was that between her and Misard there was going on a duel to the death ”

“ They took up house at Bennecourt in an old cottage, and there some years passed happily enough, a son named Jacques Louis being born in 1860. But Claude gradually became discontented, and the family returned to Paris, where there began a long struggle against poverty, a struggle beginning in high anticipation and ending in despair. After a long search for a subject for a picture which was to be his masterpiece, Claude selected a stretch of the river near Notre Dame, and into this he intended to put all those new theories of art with which he hoped to revolutionize the world. ”

“ Yielding to her hatred of the Provencals, whom she blamed for the death of her husband, and even for the slow paralysis from which she herself was suffering, she migrated to Paris, with her son Pierre, who then supported her out of a clerk’s small salary. In Rue d’Enfer she occupied a single room on the same flat as her son, and there, disabled by paralysis, lived in morose and voluntary solitude, surrounded by his tender care. Later, Pierre, who was now married, and was making a considerable income, took a house in Rue Nollet, and there Madame Sandoz passed her remaining years. ”