So Runs the World by Henryk Sienkiewicz

What’s wrong with Romanticism

Henryk Sienkiewicz

So Runs the World, a collection of odds and ends from Polish Nobel Prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz, was first published in English translation in 1898. It contains four short works—an essay of literary criticism, a one-act play, a short story, and a five-act play. The book opens with an introduction by translator S. C. de Soissons that’s heaping with praise. De Soissons singles out Sienkiewicz’s Christianity as one of his work’s most positive qualities. For the most part, the introduction is nearly unintelligible, as if written by someone for whom English is a second language. That’s a problem that plagues the entire book. The translations could be described as at best antiquated and at worst clumsy.

The main reason I wanted to read this collection is for Sienkiewicz’s essay on French novelist Emile Zola, simply entitled “Zola”. I’m a big fan of both authors, but Sienkiewicz does not share my enthusiasm for Zola. The essay is vehemently negative. Sienkiewicz attacks Zola’s lack of godliness and his concentration on the dirty, immoral side of life. He also criticizes Zola’s Rougon-Macquart cycle of novels, asserting that the theories of heredity that Zola employs in the series simply defy logic. While there may be some validity to that point, and that portion of the essay is well-argued, for the most part Sienkiewicz comes across as a prudish and intolerant enemy of any realist work that doesn’t strive to depict the ideal. He admits that Germinal and The Debacle are good books, but considers La Terre to be filth, presumably because it discusses manure, vomit, and farts (although Sienkiewicz only mentions the first of the three). Personally, I think there’s room for both Naturalism and Romanticism in the literary pantheon, and both writers were excellent novelists within their own stylistic spheres.

“Whose Fault?” is a one-act play about two former lovers who reunite after two years apart. They have both gone on with their lives, but still have unresolved issues between them. It’s a mediocre scene that seems disembodied and pointless, as if arbitrarily plucked from a larger work. “The Verdict” is a short story in which Apollo and Hermes bet on whether the former can seduce an Athenian baker’s wife. As the story goes on, it seems to be building into a joke or a fable, but the punchline/moral is so lame and disappointing it doesn’t succeed as either.

The last and longest piece in the book is its best, though that’s faint praise indeed. Win or Lose is a play of substantial length that is pretty entertaining throughout. It’s about a Polish princess who has recently become engaged, yet there’s still three other suitors vying for her hand. Two favorites soon rise to the top, but it’s difficult to tell which of them Sienkiewicz favors until the very end. Matters are made more interesting by a parliamentary election in which two of the men are candidates. One is a wealthy son of blue-blooded nobility, while the other is an uppity member of the lower classes who has elevated his station in life through hard work and determination. The play has promise, and makes some good points in its fifth act, but it’s ruined by an abrupt and underwhelming ending.

Sienkiewicz is a great novelist whose epics, like those of Victor Hugo, epitomize the power and glory of Romanticism. Yet, as is all too evident here, Romanticism also has its downside. There’s a pretentiousness and an irrelevance to these short works that doesn’t reflect well on their author. Even the title of the book, which bears no relation to its contents, is unnecessarily pompous. If Zola were to employ such a title, at least we could take comfort in knowing he was being sarcastic.

Works in this collection

Introduction by S. C. de Soissons 

Zola 

Whose Fault? 

The Verdict 

Win or Lose 

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The Rougon-Macquart Cycle by Émile Zola

Outline of a masterpiece

Émile Zola, painting by Edouard Manet

On this, the date of his birth, April 2nd, Old Books by Dead Guys takes this opportunity to honor the great French author Émile Zola by celebrating his 20-novel magnum opus, the Rougon-Macquart cycle. Published from 1871 to 1893, this series of books comprises one of the most ambitious achievements in the history of literature. J. G. Patterson, in his reference work A Zola Dictionary, states that Les Rougon-Macquart “occupied nearly twenty-five years in writing, consists of twenty volumes containing over twelve hundred characters, and a number of words estimated . . . at two million five hundred thousand.”

The only endeavor in French letters that’s comparable to Les Rougon-Macquart is Balzac’s Comédie Humaine, a collection of over 90 novels, short stories, and essays written from 1799-1850 in which the author attempted to explore every aspect of French society. While Balzac’s stories vary widely in setting from medieval times to the present, Zola’s focus in the Rougon-Macquart books is much narrower and sharper. His 20 novels all take place during the Second French Empire (1851-1870)—the reign of Emperor Napoleon III (the nephew of the more famous Napoleon I). Zola concentrates on the members of one family who lived during this crucial period of modernization in France. Through the lives of these sons, daughters, siblings, and cousins, Zola examines various social, political, and economic phenomena of the era.

The Rougon-Macquart novels are united not only temporally but also stylistically. With a few incongruous exceptions, these 20 novels all exemplify the literary movement known as Naturalism. Though a few writers preceded Zola in the development of Naturalism, his work is acknowledged as the apex of the movement, and he its most ardent proponent. Naturalism sprang out of the scientific advances of the 19th century, most notably Darwin’s theory of evolution. Naturalist writers seek to show how external forces such as heredity, environment, and social conditions mold the characters of individuals. They often employ a very descriptive style of prose based on empirical observation of the real world, even when such observation requires them to unflinchingly depict the uglier, baser sides of life, such as poverty, immorality, and violence.

It was not merely for stylistic or dramatic reasons that Zola chose to connect these 20 books by familial links. The focus on related family members gives Zola the opportunity to illustrate evolutionary concepts. The members of this fictional family are all descended from one woman, Adélaide Fouque, and her two lovers, Monsieurs Rougon and Macquart. From book to book, Zola shows how hereditary characteristics, both physical and behavioral, are passed down from generation to generation. He saw these novels as laboratories, and the cast of characters as test subjects in an experiment. Regardless of the accuracy of that viewpoint, the introduction of scientific themes into fiction resulted in a significant departure from the existing state of literature. Naturalism, as exemplified by Zola’s Rougon-Macquart cycle, combines the epic drama of old-school Romanticism with the gritty honesty and social consciousness of modern Realism. 

Click on the titles below to read my complete reviews of the individual books. The ratings may seem harsh, but when I give a Zola book one or two stars, that’s relative to the high standards one expects from Zola, not compared to literature in general.

Novels in the series

La Fortune des Rougon (The Fortune of the Rougons) (1871)
In the fictional town of Plassans (a surrogate for the author’s hometown of Aix-en-Provence) Zola plants the roots of the Rougon-Macquart family tree and outlines its first three generations. When the coup d’etat takes place in 1851 that puts Napoleon III on the throne of France, the fates of the various family members rise and fall according to which political side they’ve chosen. (4 stars)

La Curée (The Kill) (1872)
Aristide Saccard (born Aristide Rougon) strikes it rich in Paris through a series of shady real estate deals. He pours his wealth into the building of a magnificent mansion where he throws lavish parties for the wealthiest Parisians. With the extravagant flow of cash comes the loosening of morals. A vivid portrait of the corruption of the Second Empire, but probably the worst book in the series. (1 star)

Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris; The Fat and the Thin) (1873)
Lisa Quenu, the daughter of Antoine Macquart, operates a butcher shop in the neighborhood of Les Halles, the huge central marketplace of Paris. She finds her comfortable middle-class lifestyle threatened when her husband’s brother Florent, an escaped political prisoner, arrives and takes up residence in her home. (4 stars)

La Conquête de Plassans (The Conquest of Plassans) (1874)
A new priest arrives in Plassans, Abbé Faujas, who rents a room in the home of the Mourets (François Mouret of the Macquart family, and his wife Marthe Rougon). The clergyman soon begins to wield his social and political influence in the affairs of the town, and insinuates himself more and more into the lives of his hosts. (4 stars)

La Faute de l’Abbé Mouret (The Sin of Father Mouret) (1875)
Serge Mouret (son of François) becomes parish priest in the small rural village of Les Artaud. His severe religious fervor is shaken when he falls in love with a local girl. This novel is one of the more Romantic in the series—a departure from Zola’s trademark Naturalism—and thus one of the least successful. (1 star)

Son Excellence Eugène Rougon (His Excellency Eugene Rougon) (1876)
Eugène Rougon is a powerful Minister in the government of Napoleon III. Through his own vanity and ambition, and some political maneuvering on the part of his rivals, he falls into disfavor with the Emperor and with the public, but he won’t go down without a fight. (3 stars)

L’Assomoir (The Dram Shop) (1877)
A gritty portrait of working class life and an unflinching study of the destructive effects of alcohol, L’Assomoir follows Gervaise Macquart’s decline from a respectable life as a hard-working laundress to a living hell of chemical dependence, abject poverty, and moral depravity. A masterpiece of Naturalism. (5 stars)

Une Page d’Amour (A Love Episode) (1878)
Hélène Mouret, a beautiful young widow, unexpectedly falls in love again but finds herself in a situation in which her virtuous reputation may be compromised. This melodramatic love story doesn’t fit in with this series of novels at all, but it’s not without its charms. (2 stars)

Nana (1880)
Nana Coupeau, the daughter of Gervaise Macquart of L'Assomoir, escapes her humble beginnings by becoming an actress. Despite having little talent, through her sheer natural beauty she proceeds to enslave the wealthiest men of France and suck them dry of their funds and their dignity. A baudy commentary on the decadence and decay of Parisian morals. (4 stars) 

Pot-Bouille (Pot Luck; Piping Hot; Restless House) (1882)
Focusing on a middle-class apartment building, its inhabitants, and its servants, Zola illustrates how individuals of various social strata scheme, strategize, and compromise their personal ethics in order to claw their way up the societal pyramid. A lesser-known work, but one of Zola’s best. (5 stars)

Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies’ Paradise) (1883)
In this sequel of sorts to Pot-Bouille, Zola turns his attention to the world of commerce. Octave Mouret, who stars in both books, inherits a thriving business—one of Paris’s first department stores. He enlarges the shop into the grandest shopping mecca in Paris, swallowing up neighboring real estate and bankrupting his small-time competitors. (4 stars)

La Joie de Vivre (Zest for Life; Love of Life; How Jolly Life Is!) (1884)
It becomes clear early on that the title of this book is meant to be sarcastic. Pauline Quenu is sent to a bleak village on the Normandy coast to live with relatives of her departed father. There she leads a persecuted existence with little joy to speak of. One of Zola’s most depressing books. (2 stars)

Germinal (1885)
Zola’s greatest work, and my favorite novel of all time. Étienne Lantier, another child of Gervaise Macquart, arrives in the northern town of Montsou and finds employment at the local coal mine. When he experiences first-hand the appalling working and living conditions, he becomes a labor organizer and urges the miners to strike for better wages. (5 stars)

L’Oeuvre (The Masterpiece) (1886)
Claude Lantier (brother of Étienne), ekes out a bohemian existence while struggling to make a living as a painter. The academic establishment that controls the annual salon exhibitions repeatedly scorn his modern, innovative style. A tale of artistic obsession and a vivid look at the Parisian art world at the dawn of impressionism.  (4 stars)

La Terre (The Earth) (1887)
When the aged patriarch of a farming family decides to divide up his holdings among his three children, they respond not with gratitude but with mutual animosity and treachery. Jean Macquart, an honest, hard-working farmhand, is caught up in the siblings’ private war. This grittily realistic portrayal of agricultural life is one of Zola’s greatest works. (5 stars)

La Rêve (The Dream) (1888)
Angélique Rougon lives in the shadow of a centuries-old cathedral, where she embroiders tapestries and vestments for the church with her adopted parents. The serenity of her sheltered existence is suddenly interrupted when a young man enters her life. Almost a fairy tale, the novel bears little resemblance at all to Zola’s more Naturalistic works. (2 stars)

La Bête Humaine (The Human Beast) (1890)
Jacques Lantier, an engine driver on the railway line from Paris to Le Havre, feels an uncontrollable urge to kill every woman he’s attracted to. He’s not the only one with murderous intent, however, in this violent thriller that combines film noir suspense with social commentary on the negative societal effects of industrialization. (4 stars)

L’Argent (Money) (1891)
Aristide Saccard, previously featured in La Curée, has since lost his great fortune to some bad investments. He soon comes up with a new plan for a big score, however, and doesn’t shy away from unethical deals or fraudulent tactics to see his get-rich-quick scheme become reality. A study of greed and the financial opportunism rampant in Paris at the time. (4 stars)

La Débâcle (The Debacle; The Downfall) (1892)
This excellent war novel focuses on two soldiers from contrasting backgrounds—Jean Macquart (from La Terre), and Maurice Levasseur—who fight in the service of France at the devastating Battle of Sedan. Zola brilliantly details the tragic effects of the Franco-Prussian War on all walks of French life. (5 stars)

Le Docteur Pascal (Doctor Pascal) (1893)
Pascal Rougon is a retired physician with a scientific interest in evolution. To aid him in his research on the subject, he studies his own family history (as depicted in the previous 19 novels). This book is more than just an epilogue, however, but a novel in its own right. In his old age Pascal falls in love with a younger woman, which forces him to examine his priorities and question whether his has been a life well lived. (4 stars)

After completing the Rougon-Macquart cycle, Zola went on to write two more series: the Three Cities trilogy—consisting of Lourdes, Rome, and Paris—and the Four Gospels—Fruitfulness, Labor, Truth, and Justice (the last unfinished at the time of his death). His Naturalism had a powerful influence on world literature, including the work of American writers like Frank Norris, Jack London, Theodore Dreiser, and John Steinbeck.

A Zola Dictionary: The Characters of the Rougon-Macquart Novels of Emile Zola by J. G. Patterson

A valuable reference for Zola aficionados

Emile Zola

Emile Zola’s Rougon-Macquart cycle is one of the greatest literary achievements of all time. According to J. G. Patterson, author of A Zola Dictionary, “It occupied nearly twenty-five years in writing, consists of twenty volumes containing over twelve hundred characters, and a number of words estimated . . . at two million five hundred thousand.” Small wonder then, that some readers might feel the need to seek out a guide to help them get their bearings amid this epic series of novels.

The bulk of A Zola Dictionary consists of an alphabetical listing of characters explaining who each individual is and what roles they play in each novel. Even the most insignificant members of the supporting cast—horses, dogs, and cows included—are given brief listings, while the main characters get detailed mini-biographies that often span the plots of more than one novel. Patterson pays particular attention to each family member’s place in Zola’s overall evolutionary vision of the series and the specific personality traits handed down from generation to generation. He also provides helpful context for how the plots relate to the actual events of French history. At the back of the book there is also an alphabetical list of places where the novels are set, but this section is tiny in comparison to the much deeper study of the myriad characters.

In addition to the book’s encyclopedic content, the introduction provides a brief biography of Zola, along with an overview of his works and the critical reception they received. Because A Zola Dictionary was published in 1912, Patterson’s take on Zola’s writing is a bit antiquated and prudish. While he praises Zola for his development of Naturalism, he nevertheless heralds the author’s most Romantic works, like The Sin of Father Mouret and The Dream, as his best, while the far more Naturalistic novel The Earth, one of Zola’s true masterpieces, he regards as offensive. While 21st century readers probably won’t see eye-to-eye with Patterson’s critical views, the introduction is valuable nonetheless as a biographical overview. Patterson also includes a Rougon-Macquart genealogical tree, in which brief descriptions of the family members are arranged in generational order. In addition, Patterson provides short synopses of all twenty novels. These are not arranged in order of publication, but rather in the order in which Zola revisits them in the final novel, Doctor Pascal, which corresponds more closely to the order of the family tree.

If you’re new to Zola, it’s probably best if you stay away from this dictionary, because it will spoil the endings of all the novels for you. The best audience for this book are avid readers of Zola with some degree of familiarity with at least his major novels. For such readers this work will not only serve as a helpful field guide for keeping everyone straight but also as an awesome tribute to the genius of Zola and the impressive scale and depth of his monumental undertaking.

The only magnum opus that really compares to Zola’s Rougon-Macquart cycle is Honoré de Balzac’s Comédie Humaine. Fans of the latter author will enjoy Repertory of the Comédie Humaine by Anatole Cerfberr and Jules François Christophe, a reference work very similar in style and structure to A Zola Dictionary. My guess is that Patterson patterned his encyclopedic volume after this earlier book.
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Doctor Pascal by Emile Zola

More than just an epilogue
Doctor Pascal is the final book in Zola’s twenty-novel Rougon-Macquart series. While it serves the purpose of an epilogue, it is also an impressive novel in its own right, and stands alone as a great work of literature. Pascal Rougon is a semi-retired physician who devotes most of his time to the study of evolution. An important asset in his research is the cabinet of files he keeps on his own diverse and dysfunctional family, the Rougons and Macquarts. Through detailed descriptions of these family dossiers, Zola reviews the events of the previous nineteen novels. In doing so, he provides us with a “Where are they now?” synopsis of the characters, and thoroughly explains the theories of heredity that underlie the series.

Evolutionary discourse only comprises a portion of the book, however, as most of the novel is devoted to the relationship between Pascal and his young niece Clotilde. In Pascal, Zola creates a very autobiographical character, and allows us glimpses into his private life. Zola fancied himself a scientist, and his novels his experiments. At the time Zola wrote this book he was falling in love with a young mistress of his own. Throughout the book, Pascal, approaching old age, looks back on his life and contemplates its purpose. Zola uses Pascal as a mouthpiece to ponder aloud philosophical issues, like the conflict between knowledge and faith. Can the two coexist, or must one vanquish the other in order for mankind to truly progress? He debates the definition of a life well-spent: Is it better to devote one’s time on this earth to work, or to the enjoyment of simpler pleasures like love and family? While many men seek immortality through offspring, Pascal has spent his whole life striving for an intellectual legacy of scientific achievement. As he feels the end of his life drawing nearer, he, like Zola, wonders if he has made the right choice.

I would not put this work in the same class as Zola’s four or five masterpieces, but it’s in the better half of the Rougon-Macquart saga. Those who have enjoyed some of Zola’s better-known novels will find much to enjoy in this one as well.
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The Debacle by Emile Zola

One of the greatest war novels of all time
In The Debacle, as in all of his greatest works, Emile Zola achieves the wide-ranging scope of a sweeping, romantic epic without romanticizing the details of his settings or the emotions of his characters. As a result, we get an in-depth examination of the effects of war, on both national and personal levels. Zola thoroughly outlines the movements of troops and supplies, the political intrigue happening within the French government, and the diplomatic relations between nations, yet he never loses sight of the individual.

The narrative focuses on the friendship between Jean Macquart and Maurice Levasseur, two French soldiers from contrasting backgrounds who are brought together by the war. Jean Macquart, who previously starred in Zola’s novel The Earth (La Terre), is an experienced soldier and a sturdy, dependable, salt-of-the-earth kind of guy. Maurice is a novice in the military, was raised in a privileged background, and has an emotional, introspective, and fragile nature. In addition to these two players, Zola presents myriad perspectives on the war. The multitudinous cast includes an emperor and a king; generals, grunts, and officers in between; farmers, shopkeepers, industrialists, doctors, and their wives. The combatants in this war range from highly-skilled military men to peasants with guns thrust into their hands, from the privileged elite to penniless beggars. The chaos of war ensnares them all in a series of events beyond their control or understanding, pushing them to the climactic tragedy of the Battle of Sedan.

Throughout the book, Zola condemns the futility of war in general, and the ineptitude of the French commanders in particular. The book is not totally pessimistic, however, as he does include some romantic concessions to the glory of patriotism, the strength of friendship, and the heroism that can arise when ordinary men are thrust into extraordinary circumstances. This is one of Zola’s greatest works, and I would recommend it to anyone, especially those who enjoy classic literature or historical fiction. It is both intellectually challenging and emotionally moving. I would caution the reader that it does help to have some knowledge of French geography and happenings in French history around the time of the Franco-Prussian War.
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Money (L’Argent) by Emile Zola

White-collar crime in 19th century France
This novel follows the exploits of Aristide Saccard, a financial wheeler-dealer in Second Empire Paris. His former wealth wiped away by investment schemes gone bad, Saccard looks for his next big windfall. Luckily, he meets a neighbor, Hamelin, an engineer with grand designs to develop railroads, mines, dams, and shipping companies in the Middle East. The engineer and the financial wizard join forces to make both their dreams come true. Saccard founds the Universal Bank to fund Hamelin’s projects, and it becomes all the rage in the Paris Bourse (stock market). While Hamelin’s intentions are noble, Saccard’s primary interest in the venture is personal financial gain and self-aggrandizement. In order to push up his company’s value, he manipulates figures illegally and lies to his investors.

Saccard is a personification of the greed and opportunism rampant in France at the time, and his unwise investors personify that period’s growing mania for financial speculation. It’s amazing how relevant the book is to this day. The Universal Bank could just as well be named Enron or Worldcom, and foreign investment in the Middle East is certainly a current concern. Another issue that Zola tackles in this book is anti-Semitism. Though Zola himself was not an anti-Semite, he makes Saccard a hater of Jews in order to depict the mind-set of many Parisians at that time. One of the functions of Saccard’s Universal Bank is to create a repository of Catholic money to rival the Jewish-owned banks, an actual goal of some Parisian businessmen of the time. Regardless of the historical social commentary, one can enjoy this novel purely for its intricately-drawn characters and its insights into human nature. I would caution that some of the financial strategy can be a little difficult for people (like me) who are not fully versed in the world of stocks and bonds.

This book is the 18th book in Zola’s twenty-novel Rougon-Macquart series. Zola first introduced us to the character Aristide Saccard back in the second volume of the series, La Curée. L’Argent (a.k.a. Money) is a much better book than La Curée (a.k.a. The Kill), and it is not necessary to read that prior volume in order to understand or enjoy this book. By Zola standards I would not call this novel a masterpiece, but it’s an excellent novel and deserves to be read.
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La Bête Humaine (The Human Beast) by Emile Zola

A thriller with depth
In this book, Emile Zola dives headlong into his fascination with “the human beast” by examining the psychology of murder. The novel is also a detailed portrait of the lives of railroad workers. The main character is Jacques Lantier, son of Gervaise Macquart (of L’Assomoir), a railroad engineer who works the line between Paris and Le Havre. Jacques feels a nagging compulsion to kill every woman he’s attracted to. Fortunately, up to this point he has been able to control himself, but who knows how long he will be able to restrain the killer inside? Jacques is not the only character with murder on his mind; in fact, everyone in the book seems to be plotting to kill someone. Murder for love, murder for greed, murder for revenge are all represented. Zola has crammed so much violence and suspense into the plot, that on the surface he’s written a fabulous piece of pulp fiction. Though the book pushes the boundaries of believability, it’s also a fascinating study of human nature. The reader gains a window into the minds of the characters that reminds one of Edgar Allen Poe’s best tales. Underlying the criminal plot threads is a deeper level of social commentary, scientific inquiry, and philosophical debate. Zola shows how the rise of industrial technology contributes to the moral degeneration and dehumanization of the populace. He portrays Jacques’ relationship with his engine as a symbiotic, almost romantic relationship. Meanwhile Jacques’ Aunt Phasie and her family operate a crossing/switching station in the middle of nowhere, where their only interaction with the outside world comes in split-second views of nameless passengers being carted off to unknown destinations. While the railroad provides speed and convenience, it also generates social isolation and anonymity. Fans of Zola or readers of classical literature in general will certainly enjoy this book. Even fans of contemporary suspense fiction should find it entertaining and thought-provoking.
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Le Rêve (The Dream) by Emile Zola

Fractured fairy tale
Within Zola’s body of work, this odd little book sticks out like a sore thumb. A stylistic departure from Zola’s characteristic Naturalism, it reads almost like a fairy tale. Angelique, the illegitimate daughter of Sidonie Rougon, is adopted by a married couple in the town of Beaumont. Angelique learns the family trade, embroidering tapestries and vestments for the town’s cathedral. She grows up in the shadow of this thirteenth-century cathedral, leading the cloistered life of an artisan. Reading becomes her favorite recreation, and romantic tales of saints and ancient royalty fascinate her. Within the centuries-old walls of the family home and the adjacent garden, Angelique leads a peaceful, content existence which imbues her with innocence and naiveté. Her passage from childhood to womanhood is irrelevant to her and goes largely unnoticed, until a young man enters her life and inspires in her dreams of a future life beyond the garden walls.

Angelique is such a likeable character that the reader really roots for her to succeed in achieving those dreams. One almost forgets how totally unbelievable the plot is. The book is a pleasant enough read, but utterly inconsequential. Upon finishing the book, one asks what’s the point? It adds little to the Rougon-Macquart series as a whole. Zola’s knack for descriptive thoroughness hits and misses in this book. His vivid depictions of the artisans’ home, their lifestyle, their trade and craft captivate the reader. His long lists of saints and kings, on the other hand, inspire fatigue. Anyone who is reading the entire Rougon-Macquart series obviously should and will read this book. Casual fans of Zola’s writing would probably do better to skip it.
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The Earth (La Terre) by Emile Zola

The second best novel of all time?
This book is a masterpiece. Had Zola not written the awe-inspiring Germinal, this would clearly be his greatest work. Zola does his best writing when he focuses not on Parisian society but rather on the lower classes: the laborers, the peasants, the working stiffs. In this case, his subject matter is the farmers of the Beauce, an agricultural region between Chartres and Orleans. Here, families have cultivated the same plots of land for generations. In fact, land itself is everything to these people, and they will do whatever they can to protect the earth they have, and to acquire as much more as they can before they die. When Old Fouan decides to divide up his holdings among his three children, no one is happy with the portion they receive. Their avarice of earth leads to mutual animosity and eventually to treachery. Jean Macquart, an affable, hard-working farmhand, is, like us, an outsider in this hermetic world, until he falls in love with a farmer’s daughter and becomes a participant in their private war.

The scope of the book is wide, and looks beyond the Fouan family to examine political and social issues of the time, including the effect of the impending Franco-Prussian War, the triumphs and failures of modern scientific farming methods, and how the market’s regulation of prices damns the farmers to eternal poverty. Zola’s description of the agricultural life, its rewards and its hardships, is vivid and moving. He neither romanticizes nor denigrates the farmer’s relationship to the land, but rather paints a realistic picture of dirty, exhausting toil that nonetheless has its physical and spiritual rewards.

The book achieves a tremendous range of mood. It’s like an emotional roller coaster. There are passages in the book which are downright terrifying. Elsewhere there are moments which are laugh-out-loud funny. Zola obviously had a lot of fun writing the more light-hearted scenes in the book. He includes everything from a farting contest to a vomiting donkey. Overall, however, this novel is a dark portrayal of human greed and selfishness, and the brutal lengths to which people will go to satisfy their hunger for property. This book should be read by all.
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The Masterpiece (L’Oeuvre) by Emile Zola

Not quite a masterpiece, but close
L’Oeuvre (a.k.a. The Masterpiece) tells the story of Claude Lantier, a gifted but unorthodox artist scratching out a bohemian existence in Paris. Claude’s innovative painting style is years ahead of its time. It frustrates him that he is not getting the acceptance from the cultural establishment that he feels he deserves. Determined to create a masterpiece that will earn acclaim in the annual Paris salon exhibition, he becomes obsessed with his art, abandoning his friends, his family, and his sanity.

This is the 14th book in Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series, and one of Zola’s most autobiographical novels. Claude is a surrogate for Zola’s childhood friend Paul Cézanne, and Claude’s best friend Pierre Sandoz stands in for the author himself. Zola vividly depicts the bohemian lifestyle of his young adulthood in Paris. Claude, Sandoz, and their gang of artist friends struggle to make their fortunes as painters, writers, and sculptors. They enjoy each other’s camaraderie, encouraging and challenging one another over drinks in a cafe where they debate the meaning and value of art. The reader can’t help but share in the excitement of their contagious determination to change the world. As an artist myself, I found Zola’s vivid description of the annual salon exhibition—the submission process, the back room politics governing the selection of works, the opening day festivities—particularly fascinating. As the young men grow up, they drift apart somewhat and begin to lead more settled, adult lives. Claude’s love interest, Christine, takes on a larger role in his life, and becomes an equally prominent character in the novel. Zola delves deeply into the dynamics of Claude’s marriage, and the toll his art takes on the relationship.

The least interesting scenes of the book are the extensive descriptions of the “masterpiece” itself. The specifics of the work don’t add much to our understanding of the artist’s obsession. Though this book engages the reader from the beginning, it falters towards the end as it becomes more and more divorced from reality. In order to prove a point about the intrinsic inseparability of art and artist, Zola exaggerates Claude’s compulsion until it defies believability. Despite these few complaints, overall this is an excellent novel and a great window into the artistic world of Paris at a time when exciting changes took place. Zola fans will find it a valuable read, as will anyone interested in the art world of turn-of-the-century (last century, that is) France.
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Germinal by Emile Zola

Read it now!
Simply put, I believe this is the greatest novel of all time. Yes, I’m a big Zola fan, but I don’t give all of his books five stars. This is his greatest achievement, and it deserves a place in anyone’s literary canon. The book describes the harsh life of coal miners in the (fictional?) mining town of Montsou in the north of France. Étienne Lantier (son of Gervaise in L’Assomoir) wanders into town looking for work. He gets a job in the mine and finds lodging with the Maheus, a family with seven children, whose daily life totally revolves around the mine. Étienne starts out as a passive Everyman character—we see this bleak world through his eyes. He then takes on a more active role in the lives of the miners by becoming a labor organizer and preaching socialist ideals. The miners decide to strike for better wages, which begins a chain of events leading to more suffering, sacrifice, and eventually violence. Zola beautifully examines the strike’s effect on every person involved: the miners, the town shopkeepers, the mine executives, the small business owner, the government, the shareholders, the communist intellectuals, the soldiers, the radical revolutionaries. Zola’s characteristic attention to detail creates a vivid world for the reader to inhabit. We become involved in these people’s lives and fight their battles within ourselves. No stone goes unturned, and no one emerges from the conflict with clean hands. Zola definitely inspires us to sympathize with the miners, but at the same time he does not absolve them of all responsibility for their own suffering. Nor does he paint the mine owners as evil personified. Instead, he creates human characters we can empathize with, and provides us with the motivations for their actions. Even Étienne, our eyes and ears in the story, does not come out smelling like a rose. Though his visions of socialist utopia may be lofty, his vanity and his limited intellect cloud his judgment, and as a result people suffer. This is mostly a serious novel, but there are lighter moments and bits of social satire as well. The lives of the miners are not all sorrow and woe. At the beginning of the book we enjoy some of their happier moments. From there, tension slowly builds into a snowball effect that climaxes with a series of shocking tragedies. Through it all Zola imbues an underlying philosophical debate on the value of human life and dignity. I would recommend this book to anyone, whether they are habitual readers of classic literature or not. Those who read this book might also enjoy The Octopus by Frank Norris, an American writer who was greatly influenced by this book.
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La Joie de Vivre (a.k.a. Zest for Life or How Jolly Life Is!) by Emile Zola

Don’t let the title fool you.
In the first six chapters of this book, no less than four characters take to their death beds, and Zola provides us with minute details of their sufferings, relapses, and further sufferings (I won’t say who survives and who dies). Zola meant the title to be ironic, which is clear early on. Pauline Quenu, who was a little girl in Zola’s novel Le Ventre de Paris, is now a teenager, recently orphaned. She moves to Bonneville, a small fishing village on the harsh Normandy coast, to live with the Chanteaus, relatives of her father. She spends an awful lot of her time nursing the sick. Otherwise, she’s hanging out with her cousin Lazare as he tries to figure out what he wants to do with his life. He dabbles in science, music, and other business ventures. This book overflows with suffering, much of it pointless. Basically, the heroine is continually abused (not physically) by the people she loves, and doesn’t make any attempt to free herself from the situation. The descriptions of life in the brutal seaside town offer some interest, but most of the novel takes place within the walls of the family home. The story has a bit of a gothic feel, reminiscent of Wuthering Heights. Unlike the other novels in the Rougon-Macquart series, this book doesn’t offer much historical perspective on life during the Second Empire. Unless you plan to read the entire series of twenty novels (which I wholeheartedly recommend), don't bother with this volume.
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Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies’ Paradise) by Emile Zola

Not Zola’s best, but still a good read
The eleventh novel in the Rougon-Macquart series, this book picks up where the last installment left off. Octave Mouret, featured in Pot-Bouille, also has a lead role in this novel. Through a fortunate marriage to a bride who dies not long afterward, young business man Mouret is left with a thriving department store named Au Bonheur des Dames. Through a natural business sense and a flair for promotion, he builds this store into the grandest mecca for shopping in all of Paris, in fact in the entire world. Soon the store swallows up the neighboring real estate, putting his old-school competitors out of business with his new brand of commerce. A few of the established firms, however, hang on for a grueling battle with this Goliath of retail.

At this point in history, department stores were a new invention, and a few stores in Paris totally revolutionized the way the world did business. Zola captures the excitement of that time. He obviously admires the revolutionary entrepreneurs for their efficiency, ingenuity, and showmanship, but he also laments the fall of the traditional Parisian shopkeeper. As Zola often does, he sets up a conflict between the two opposing philosophies, then brilliantly defends both sides of the argument. He also studies the consumers, and explores the growing obsession with shopping that blossomed among an enlarging middle class with disposable income. The depiction of the workings of the giant enterprise are interesting, and the store is staffed by a host of vividly drawn characters. The main protagonist of the book is not Mouret, but Denise Baudu, a poor girl from the provinces who comes to Paris to work as a saleswoman. Zola is usually so good at creating realistic characters, warts-and-all, but Denise is so squeaky clean and noble that she comes across as too perfect to be true. She belongs in a melodrama, and the more the book concentrates on her, the more the story devolves into just that. Zola’s literary style, Naturalism, calls for an exhaustive accumulation of sensory details. Unfortunately, these details form long, often tedious descriptions of store displays. On the whole, this is a good book, worth reading, though not one of Zola’s masterworks. I would recommend reading Pot-Bouille (aka Pot Luck or Restless House) instead. It is a much better novel.
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Pot-Bouille by Emile Zola

An underappreciated masterpiece
This lesser-known novel is one of Emile Zola’s greatest works. It has been translated into English under various titles, among them Pot Luck, Piping Hot!, and Restless House. It is the tenth book in Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series, though that’s not vitally important because they all stand alone as individual works of literature. 

Pot-Bouille gives us a revealing window into the secret lives and discrete liaisons of the inhabitants of a middle-class apartment building in Paris during France’s Second Empire. Within that “middle class” there are many levels of status, and each character in the book attempts to find some way of clawing and scratching his or her way up to a higher step on the societal pyramid. Among the ensemble cast of characters is Octave Mouret, son of Francois Mouret and Marthe Rougon from Zola’s earlier work The Conquest of Plassans. Upon moving into the building, Octave soon begins seeking an affair with an older, wealthier woman who will provide him with a foot-in-the-door of Parisian society. Elsewhere in the building, a mother pimps her daughters at dinner parties, trying to secure a match that will improve the family’s bleak financial future. Meanwhile, siblings of a well-to-do family squabble over the leavings of their dead father. Men squander their wealth on mistresses. Illicit affairs take place from the basement to the attic, all covered by a veneer of respectability. Away from the street-side facade of righteousness, however, the servants in the courtyard know the real goings-on and offer commentary like a sort of Greek chorus. 

This is what Zola does best. He creates a setting, populates it with a cast of diverse characters, engages them in an intricate series of events, and puts the reader right in the middle of it. This book is a real treat for any reader of classic literature, even if you’re not familiar with Zola or the Rougon-Macquart series. Fans of Zola’s other works will find it on a par with his great masterpieces Germinal and La Terre.
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Nana by Emile Zola

Biting cultural criticism dressed up in naughty lingerie
Nana chronicles the rise of the title character from lowly street girl to a queen of the whores in Second Empire Paris. Part of the fun of reading this book is to imagine how shocked the audience of Zola’s time must have been when they first read this novel. Nana makes Madame Bovary look like Mother Teresa. A series of men from various levels of social status become involved with Nana, and the only way to satisfy their lustful obsession with her is to rid themselves of every drop of money and every shred of dignity. At one point Zola says it were as if the entire economy of France had passed between her legs. The book offers serious commentary on the decadence and decay of Parisian society in the late nineteenth century. At the same time, it’s a wonderful piece of pulp fiction. The events and characters are exaggerated in some parts to comedic effect, but under the satire lies a strong indictment of loose mores and shallow pleasures. Nana is a symbol of the political, cultural, and moral degradation of France. (Her contemporary American cultural equivalent might be . . . Paris Hilton, for example.) As a literary character, Nana has the paradoxical effect of being likeable even while we despise everything she stands for. This book is the ninth volume in the Rougon-Macquart series (Nana is the daughter of Gervaise Macquart of the book L’Assomoir), but it stands alone as a work of literature. Previous knowledge of Zola or his works is not necessary to enjoy this novel. This book is a worthwhile read for anyone who appreciates great literature.
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Une Page d’Amour by Emile Zola

A harmless bit of fluff
This book reminds me of a Latin-American soap opera: It stars a plucky young heroine who falls in love (forbidden love, of course); the plot features some preposterous circumstances; it’s overwrought with deliberately tear-jerking emotion; yet you can’t help but watch because the lead actress is so attractive and charming. In this case the star of the show is Helene Mouret, a character so beautiful and likeable that you can’t help but root for her. Unfortunately, she is the most realistically drawn character in the book, and the rest of the cast feel like caricatures. Helene, a widow with a young daughter, falls in love with a handsome doctor, which is not totally understandable to the reader, because as a character the doctor is a bit of a nonentity. The ridiculous set of coincidences that bring the two lovers together approaches the realm of farce. I don’t want to make it sound like a horrible book; it’s just mediocre in every way. The story doesn’t have much to say historically about France’s Second Empire, other than perhaps the plight of young widows at the time. It’s difficult for the reader to feel sorry for Helene, because one never really feels like she is on the verge of destitution or disgrace. The book contains some long descriptive passages about the Paris skyline which are poetically pretty, but don’t add much to the narrative. Those who wish to read the entire Rougon-Macquart series will of course read this book. It is certainly not the worst book of the bunch. Casual readers of Zola’s works can skip it.
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L’Assomoir by Emile Zola

After 100+ years, still a relevant and moving work
This is the book that made Émile Zola a star, and rightfully so. It is a gripping and heart-wrenching novel. Of all the books in the Rougon-Macquart series, this one is probably the purest representation of the literature of Naturalism. Zola amasses a palette full of sensory experience and observational detail. With it he paints a gritty, unromantic portrait of life among the lower middle class in Paris. The protagonist, Gervaise Macquart, starts out as a respectable laundress. Then the book follows her descent into destitution, via alcohol and moral dissipation, through succeeding levels of hell on earth. The interaction of the characters and the events that take place ring true each step along the way, so one can completely understand, regrettably, how this character you liked and admired at the beginning of the narrative could become so pitiable by the end of it. True to reality, her downfall stems from both events beyond her control and also from poor choices she makes. There were only one or two instances in the story where I felt like the characters made choices that didn’t seem in keeping with their natures, but the fact that it bothers me is just a testament to how involved I was with these characters in the first place. This novel is a thoughtful examination of social ills, and an excellent study of human nature. Despite its historical context, it gave me a better understanding of people in today’s society who have fallen on hard times. Although this book is a part of the Rougon-Macquart series, you don’t have to know anything about the other novels in the series to appreciate it. It stands alone as a great work of literature, and should be read by all.
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His Excellency Eugène Rougon by Emile Zola

Behind the scenes of Second Empire politics

This is the sixth novel in Zola’s twenty-novel Rougon-Macquart cycle. Compared to the other novels in the series, this one falls in the middle of the pack in terms of quality. Eugène Rougon is a powerful minister in Napoleon III’s government. Through his own vanity and ambition, and some political maneuvering on the part of his rivals, he is beginning to fall into disfavor with the Emperor and with the public. Rougon won’t go down without a fight, however, and this book chronicles his battle to stay on top. At the same time, Rougon becomes romantically obsessed with a beautiful Italian aristocrat who has hidden political motivations of her own. This book offers a fascinating look into the complex inner workings of the government of France’s Second Empire. Napoleon III himself is a supporting character in the book. This novel is similar to Zola’s work Money (L’Argent) in that it offers us a very well-drawn, strong and ambitious central character with complicated emotional depth, situated in a position of power amidst the historical events of his era. To read this book it helps to have a general knowledge of French history and politics of the time, at least the various wars that were taking place during the Second Empire. The characters make reference to a lot of events, and it can be a difficult read if you don’t know the facts behind the story. Those who enjoy Zola’s other Rougon-Macquart novels will like this book, as will anyone interested in French history.

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