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"Its force of impact, its narrative muscle and its psychological
clarity make it still, nearly 150 years on, one of the most
shocking books in the canon." --Julian Barnes A BRAND NEW
TRANSLATION BY ADAM THORPE
Mysterious disappearances, domestic cases, noiseless, bloodless
snuffings-out... the law can look as deep as it likes, but when the
crime itself goes unsuspected... oh yes, there's many a murderer
basking in the sun.
When Therese Raquin is forced to marry the sickly Camille, she
sees a bare life stretching out before her, leading every evening
to the same cold bed and every morning to the same empty day.
Escape comes in the form of her husband's friend, Laurent, and
Therese throws herself headlong into an affair. There seems only
one obstacle to their happiness; Camille. They plot to be rid of
him. But in destroying Camille they kill the very desire that
connects them. First published in 1867, Therese Raquin has lost
none of its power to enthral. Adam Thorpe's unflinching translation
brings Zola's dark and shocking masterwork to life.
"I recall the long hours I sat for him... From time to time, as I
posed, half-asleep, I looked at the artist standing at his easel,
with features drawn, clear-eyed, engrossed in his work. He had
forgotten me, he no longer knew I was there, he simply copied me,
as if I were some kind of human beast, with a concentration and
artistic integrity that I have seen nowhere else." Zola's writings
on Manet, the most important of which are presented in this volume,
were the first to identify the painter's seminal role in the
emergence of modern art.
'She was the golden beast, an unconscious force, the very scent of
her could bring the world to ruin.' Nana, daughter of a drunk and a
laundress, is the Helen of Troy of Paris. A sexually magnetic
high-class prostitute and actress, she becomes a celebrity, rapidly
conquering society, ruining all men who fall under her
spell-especially Count Muffat, Chamberlain to the Empress. Nana
herself meets a terrible fate, consumed by her own dissipation and
extravagance, just as the disastrous war with Prussia is declared.
Nana is the ninth instalment in the twenty volume Rougon-Macquart
series. The novel opens in 1867, the year of the World Fair, when
Paris, thronged by a cosmopolitan elite, was la Ville Lumiere, the
glittering setting-and object-of Zola's scathing denunciation of
society's hypocrisy and moral corruption. Nana comes to symbolize
the Second Empire regime itself in all its excesses; but in the
final chapters, the narrator seems to suggest that the coming
disaster is not so much a result of the corruption of the Empire,
as of rampant female sexuality.
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Doctor Pascal (Paperback)
Emile Zola; Translated by Julie Rose; Edited by Brian Nelson
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R284
R203
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'There's something of everything there, the best and the worst, the
vulgar and the sublime, flowers, muck, tears, laughter, the river
of life itself' Pascal Rougon has served as a doctor in the rural
French town of Plassans for thirty years. He lives a quiet life
with his faithful servant Martine and young niece Clotilde. Pascal
is a man of science, striving to find the ultimate cure for all
diseases. This puts him at odds with his niece, who is horrified by
his denial of religious faith. Clotilde also distrusts Pascal's
lifelong ambition to create a family tree on scientific principles,
based upon his theories of heredity. Tensions in the household are
fuelled by Pascal's scheming mother, Felicite, as the final episode
in the great Rougon-Macquart saga plays out. Dr Pascal is the
passionate conclusion to Zola's twenty-novel sequence, and the most
eloquent expression of the ideas on heredity and human progress
that have underpinned it. Human relations are at its heart, as
Pascal and Clotilde are bound ever closer by ties of family and
love.
Unjustly deported to Devil's Island following Louis-Napoleon's
coup-d'etat in December 1851, Florent Quenu escapes and returns to
Paris. He finds the city changed beyond recognition. The old Marche
des Innocents has been knocked down as part of Haussmann's grand
program of urban reconstruction, replaced by Les Halles, the
spectacular new food markets. Disgusted by a bourgeois society
whose devotion to food is inseparable from its devotion to the
Government, Florent attempts an insurrection. Les Halles,
apocalyptic and destructive, play an active role in Zola's picture
of a world in which food and the injustice of society are
inextricably linked.
This is the first English translation in fifty years of Le Ventre
de Paris (The Belly of Paris). The third in Zola's great cycle, Les
Rougon-Macquart, it is as enthralling as Germinal, Therese Raquin,
and the other novels in the series. Its focus on the great Paris
food hall, Les Halles--combined with Zola's famous impressionist
descriptions of food--make this a particularly memorable novel.
Brian Nelson's lively translation captures the spirit of Zola's
world and his Introduction illuminates the use of food in the novel
to represent social class, social attitudes, political conflicts,
and other aspect of the culture of the time. The bibliography and
notes ensure that this is the most critically up-to-date edition of
the novel in print.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has
made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the
globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to
scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of
other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading
authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date
bibliographies for further study, and much more."
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A Love Story (Paperback)
Emile Zola; Translated by Helen Constantine; Edited by Brian Nelson
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R310
R220
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'Everything revolved around their love. They were constantly bathed
in a passion that they carried with them, around them, as though it
were the only air they could breathe.' Helene Grandjean, an
attractive young widow, lives a secluded life in Paris with her
only child, Jeanne. Jeanne is a delicate and nervous girl who
jealously guards her mother's affections. When Jeanne falls ill,
she is attended by Dr Deberle, whose growing admiration for Helene
gradually turns into mutual passion. Deberle's wife Juliette,
meanwhile, flirts with a shallow admirer, and Helene, intent on
preventing her adultery, precipitates a crisis whose consequences
are far-reaching. Jeanne realizes she has a rival for Helene's
devotion in the doctor, and begins to exercise a tyrannous hold
over her mother. The eighth novel in Zola's celebrated
Rougon-Macquart series, A Love Story is an intense psychological
and nuanced portrayal of love's different guises. Zola's study
extends most notably to the city of Paris itself, whose shifting
moods reflect Helene's emotional turmoil in passages of
extraordinary lyrical description.
The Fortune of the Rougons is the first in Zola's famous
Rougon-Macquart series of novels. In it we learn how the two
branches of the family came about, and the origins of the
hereditary weaknesses passed down the generations. Murder,
treachery, and greed are the keynotes, and just as the Empire was
established through violence, the "fortune" of the Rougons is paid
for in blood.
Set in the fictitious Provencal town of Plassans, The Fortune of
the Rougons tells the story of Silvere and Miette, two idealistic
young supporters of the republican resistance to Louis-Napoleon
Bonaparte's coup d'etat of December 1851. They join the woodcutters
and peasants of the Var to seize control of Plassans, and are
opposed by the Bonapartist loyalists led by Silvere's uncle, Pierre
Rougon. Meanwhile, the foundations of the Rougon family and its
illegitimate Macquart branch are being laid in the brutal
beginnings of the Imperial regime.
Brian Nelson provides an engaging translation as well as a
wide-ranging introduction that explains the background to the
Rougon-Macquart series as well as the historical setting of the
novel and its special qualities. This edition also features a
chronology, bibliography, and extensive explanatory notes.
About the Series For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has
made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the
globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to
scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of
other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading
authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date
bibliographies for further study, and much more."
'I really don't understand how people can blame a priest so much,
when he strays from the path.' The Sin of AbbA (c) Mouret tells the
compelling story of the young priest Serge Mouret. Striving after
spiritual purity and sanctity, he lives a life of constant prayer,
but his neglect of all physical needs leads to serious illness,
followed by amnesia. No longer knowing he is a priest, he falls in
love with his nurse Albine. Together, like a latter-day Adam and
Eve, they roam through an Eden-like garden called the 'Paradou',
seeking a forbidden tree in whose shade they will make love. Zola
memorably shows their gradual awakening to sexuality, and his
poetic descriptions of the luxuriant and beautiful Paradou create a
lyrical celebration of Nature. When Serge regains his memory and
recalls his priestly vows, anguish inevitably follows. The whole
story, with its numerous biblical parallels, becomes a poetic
reworking of the Fall of Man and a questioning of the very meaning
of innocence and sin. Zola explores the conflict between Church and
Nature, the sterility of the Church and the fertility of Nature.
This new translation includes a wide-ranging and helpful
introduction and explanatory notes.
Pot Luck, Zola's most acerbic satire, describes daily life in a
newly constructed block of flats in late nineteenth-century Paris.
In examining the contradictions that pervade bourgeois life, Zola
reveals a multitude of betrayals and depicts a veritable 'melting
pot' of moral and sexual degeneracy. This new translation captures
the robustness of Zola's language and restores the omissions of
earlier abridged versions.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has
made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the
globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to
scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of
other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading
authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date
bibliographies for further study, and much more.
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La Bete humaine (Paperback)
Emile Zola; Translated by Roger Pearson
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R287
R236
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Did possessing and killing amount to the same thing deep within the
dark recesses of the human beast? La Bete humaine (1890), is one of
Zola's most violent and explicit works. On one level a tale of
murder, passion and possession, it is also a compassionate study of
individuals derailed by atavistic forces beyond their control. Zola
considered this his `most finely worked' novel, and in it he
powerfully evokes life at the end of the Second Empire in France,
where society seemed to be hurtling into the future like the new
locomotives and railways it was building. While expressing the hope
that human nature evolves through education and gradually frees
itself of the burden of inherited evil, he is constantly reminding
us that under the veneer of technological progress there remains,
always, the beast within. This new translation captures Zola's
fast-paced yet deliberately dispassionate style, while the
introduction and detailed notes place the novel in its social,
historical, and literary context. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100
years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range
of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume
reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most
accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including
expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to
clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and
much more.
'My title speaks not merely of war, but also of the crumbling of a
regime and the end of a world.' Emile Zola The penultimate novel of
the Rougon-Macquart cycle, La Debacle (1892) takes as its subject
the dramatic events of the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune of
1870-1. During Zola's lifetime it was the bestselling of all his
novels, praised by contemporaries for its epic sweep as well as for
its attention to historical detail. La Debacle seeks to explain why
the Second Empire ended in a crushing military defeat and
revolutionary violence. It focuses on ordinary soldiers, showing
their bravery and suffering in the midst of circumstances they
cannot control, and includes some of the most powerful descriptions
Zola ever wrote. Zola skilfully integrates his narrative of events
and the fictional lives of his characters to provide the finest
account of this tragic chapter in the history of France. Often
compared to War and Peace, La Debacle has been described as a
'seminal' work for all modern depictions of war.
The Ladies' Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames) recounts the
spectacular development of the modern department store in late
nineteenth century Paris. The store is a symbol of capitalism, of
the modern city, and of the bourgeois family; it is emblematic of
consumer culture and the changes in sexual attitudes and class
relations taking place at the end of the century. Octave Mouret,
the store's owner-manager, masterfully exploits the desires of his
female customers. In his private life as much as in business he is
the great seducer. But when he falls in love with the innocent
Denise Baudu, he discovers she is the only one of the salesgirls
who refuses to be commodified. This new translation of the eleventh
book in the Rougon-Macquart cycle captures the spirit of one of
Zola's greatest novels of the modern city. ABOUT THE SERIES: For
over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the
widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable
volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the
most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features,
including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful
notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further
study, and much more.
A story of lust, madness and destruction set in the backstreets of
Paris. Based on Emile Zola's classic novel. The beautiful but
doomed heroine is trapped in a loveless marriage to her sickly
cousin, Camille. Every Thursday evening she watches her domineering
aunt, Madame Raquin, play dominoes... until one day her husband
brings along an old friend, the alluring and athletic Laurent. As
Laurent and The re se embark on an illicit affair, a turbulent
passion is unleashed that drives them ultimately to violence and
murder. Helen Edmundson's sensuous adaptation of Therese Raquin
premiered at the Theatre Royal, Bath, in July 2014. It was later
seen on Broadway in a production starring Keira Knightley.
'Neither spoke another word, they were gripped by a shared,
unthinking madness as they plunged headlong together into
vertiginous rapture.' Orphaned with a substantial inheritance at
the age of ten, Pauline Quenu is taken from Paris to live with her
relatives, Monsieur and Madame Chanteau and their son Lazare, in
the village of Bonneville on the wild Normandy coast. Her presence
enlivens the household and Pauline is the only one who can ease
Chanteau's gout-ridden agony. Her love of life contrasts with the
insularity and pessimism that infects the family, especially
Lazare, for whom she develops a devoted passion. Gradually Madame
Chanteau starts to take advantage of Pauline's generous nature, and
jealousy and resentment threaten to blight all their lives. The
arrival of a pretty family friend, Louise, brings tensions to a
head. The twelfth novel in the Rougon Macquart series, The Bright
Side of Life is remarkable for its depiction of intense emotions
and physical and mental suffering. The precarious location of
Bonneville and the changing moods of the sea mirror the turbulent
relations of the characters, and as the story unfolds its title
comes to seem ever more ironic.
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Money (Paperback)
Emile Zola; Translated by Valerie Minogue
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R317
R228
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'The irresistible power of money, a lever that can lift the world.
Love and money are the only things.' Aristide Rougon, known as
Saccard, is a failed property speculator determined to make his way
once more in Paris. Unscrupulous, seductive, and with unbounded
ambition, he schemes and manipulates his way to power. Financial
undertakings in the Middle East lead to the establishment of a
powerful new bank and speculation on the stock market; Saccard
meanwhile conducts his love life as energetically as he does his
business, and his empire is seemingly unstoppable. Saccard, last
encountered in The Kill (La Curee) in Zola's Rougon-Macquart
series, is a complex figure whose story intricately intertwines the
worlds of politics, finance, and the press. The repercussions of
his dealings on all levels of society resonate disturbingly with
the financial scandals of more recent times. This is the first new
translation for more than a hundred years, and the first unabridged
translation in English. The edition includes a wide-ranging
introduction and useful historical notes. ABOUT THE SERIES: For
over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the
widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable
volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the
most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features,
including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful
notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further
study, and much more.
Considered by Andre Gide to be one of the ten greatest novels in
the French language, Emile Zola's Germinal is a brutal depiction of
the poverty of a mining community in northern France Etienne
Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, is a clever but uneducated
young man with a dangerous temper. Compelled to take a back-breakin
job at Le Voreux mine when he cannot get other work, he discovers
that his fellow miners are ill, hungry and in debt, unable to feed
and clothe their families. When conditions in the mining community
deteriorate even further, Lantier finds himself leading a strike
that could mean starvation or salvation for all. The thirteenth
novel in Zola's great Rougon-Macquart sequence, Germinal expresses
outrage at the exploitation of the many by the few, but also shows
humanity's capacity for compassion and hope. Translated with an
introduction by Roger Pearson in Penguin Classics If you enjoyed
Germinal, you might like Zola's Therese Raquin, also available in
Penguin Classics.
'in this life, even if you don't ask for much you still end up with
bugger all!' In a run-down quarter of Paris, Gervaise Macquart
struggles to earn a living and support her family. She earns a
pittance washing other people's dirty clothes in the local
washhouse, and dreams of having her own laundry. But in order to
start her business she must incur debt, and her feckless husband
cannot resist the lure of the Assommoir, the local bar that
supplies all the working men with cheap spirits and absinthe. As
her money troubles grow, so Gervaise's life begins to spiral out of
control, and she is trapped in a vicious web of want and neglect.
The Assommoir is a pivotal novel in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series.
In it he lays bare the terrible poverty of the Parisian underclass,
living in overcrowded tenements, addicted to drink, a world of
squalor, and casual violence. It contains some of Zola's most
powerful and graphic writing, unforgettable portrayals of
individuals and their environment, and the fine line between
self-respect and ruin.
The Mysteries of Marseilles (1895) is a novel by French author
Emile Zola. Originally serialized in Le Messager de Provence in
1867, The Mysteries of Marseilles was written at the very beginning
of Zola's literary career. Intent on exploring taboo and the lives
of people on the edge of society, Zola crafts a narrative capable
of illuminating the human condition while humanizing those
typically disdained by the literary elite. In mid-nineteenth
century France, a Second Republic has come into power following the
Revolution of 1848, installing Napoleon III as the nation's first
president. Over the next several years, the country enters a period
of liberal reform and temporary peace. In Marseilles, a poor
republican named Philippe Cayot has fallen in love with the young
heiress Blanche de Cazalis, a member of one of the city's most
influential families. When their affair is discovered, Philippe is
sent to prison and Blanche, after giving birth to an illegitimate
child, is forced to enter a convent. Undeterred by the tragedy and
injustice of these events, Philippe's brother Marius hatches a plan
to protect the young lovers, rescue their child, and take control
of the de Cazalis family fortune. The Mysteries of Marseilles is a
story of forbidden love, fading hope, and the false promise of
modern life. Written at the very beginning of Zola's career, it
shows the innerworkings of a young mind interested in subjects too
often ignored by writers, a mind whose guiding principle is truth
and truth alone. With a beautifully designed cover and
professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Emile Zola's The
Mysteries of Marseilles is a classic work of French literature
reimagined for modern readers.
The Sin of Father Mouret (1875) is a novel by French author Emile
Zola. The fifth of twenty volumes of Zola's monumental Les
Rougon-Macquart series is an epic story of family, politics, class,
and history that traces the disparate paths of several French
citizens raised by the same mother. Spanning the entirety of the
French Second Empire, Zola provides a sweeping portrait of change
that refuses to shy away from controversy and truth as it gets to
the heart of heredity and human nature. Serge Mouret is a pious, if
not overzealous young man. For his first assignment after taking
his religious orders, he is appointed parish priest of the
impoverished village of Artauds. Unable to attract villagers to his
sermons, he pontificates to an empty, dilapidated church,
determined to explore and expose the innermost spaces of his soul.
Unconcerned with worldly affairs, he grows increasingly neurotic,
eventually suffering a debilitating breakdown. Unable to care for
himself, Father Mouret is taken into the care of Doctor Pascal
Rougon, a distant relative. At his suggestion, Mouret is sent to Le
Paradou, a rundown estate, where he is to live out his life in
peace and near-solitude. There, he befriends Albine, a young girl
who seems to have grown up alone at Le Paradou, and who dotes on
her ailing housemate. As time goes by, he begins to fall in love
with her, and their friendship develops into an innocent, blissful
romance. The Sin of Father Mouret is a story of family and fate, a
thrilling and detailed novel that continues a series rich enough
for its author to explore in twenty total volumes. With a
beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript,
this edition of Emile Zola's The Sin of Father Mouret is a classic
work of French literature reimagined for modern readers.
The Ladies' Delight (1883) is a novel by French author Emile Zola.
The eleventh of twenty volumes of Zola's monumental Les
Rougon-Macquart series is an epic story of family, politics, class,
and history that traces the disparate paths of several French
citizens raised by the same mother. Spanning the entirety of the
French Second Empire, Zola provides a sweeping portrait of change
that refuses to shy away from controversy and truth as it gets to
the heart of heredity and human nature. At the age of twenty,
Denise Baudu moves to Paris with her brothers and finds work at "Au
Bonheur des Dames," a new department store owned by eccentric
entrepreneur Octave Mouret. There, she grows accustomed to 13-hour
days, inferior food and housing, and the constant grind of
thankless labor. Despite her circumstances, she soon finds herself
attracted to Mouret, a notorious womanizer whose exploitative
business practices have alienated him from employees and local
businesspeople. Mouret's ambition and innovation have led him to
corner the market on textiles, womenswear, furniture, and household
goods, infuriating his competitors and driving smaller shops into
bankruptcy. Until Denise, he has avoided tying himself down to
another, intent on building a fortune for himself without the
interference of family. Innocent at first, she soon learns how to
manipulate Octave to do her bidding. The Ladies' Delight is a story
of family and fate, a thrilling and detailed novel that continues a
series rich enough for its author to explore in twenty total
volumes. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally
typeset manuscript, this edition of Emile Zola's The Ladies'
Delight is a classic work of French literature reimagined for
modern readers.
Claude's Confession (1865) is a novel by French author Emile Zola.
Written at night while Zola was employed at Hachette, Claude's
Confession proved scandalous upon publication and resulted in the
loss of his job. Undeterred by the response to his literary debut,
Zola took advantage of his newfound infamy in order to embark on a
career as one of France's foremost experimental writers. Intent on
exploring taboo and the lives of people on the edge of society,
Zola crafts a narrative capable of illuminating the human condition
while humanizing those typically disdained by the literary elite.
Born and raised in Provence, Claude is shocked to find that the
Paris of legend is a city mired in poverty, decay, and loneliness.
As he struggles to make ends meet in order to pay for his tiny
apartment, he takes notice of a young woman who lives in the same
building as him. Although he knows she is a prostitute, his
feelings for him grow stronger than the impulse to look down on her
way of life. After months of silent longing, he opens his door to
find her standing there, desperate for help after being evicted.
Despite his limited income, he welcomes her inside, and their
relationship soon develops into a passionate romance. Claude's
Confession is a story of forbidden love, fading hope, and the false
promise of modern life. Written at the very beginning of Zola's
career, it shows the innerworkings of a young mind interested in
subjects too often ignored by writers, a mind whose guiding
principle is truth and truth alone. With a beautifully designed
cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Emile
Zola's Claude's Confession is a classic work of French literature
reimagined for modern readers.
The Fat and the Thin (1873) is a novel by French author Emile Zola.
The third of twenty volumes of Zola's monumental Les
Rougon-Macquart series is an epic story of family, politics, class,
and history that traces the disparate paths of several French
citizens raised by the same mother. Spanning the entirety of the
French Second Empire, Zola provides a sweeping portrait of change
that refuses to shy away from controversy and truth as it gets to
the heart of heredity and human nature. Arrested in the crackdowns
that followed the French coup of 1851, Florent, an innocent man,
manages to escape prison and return to Paris. Desperate to avoid
capture, he finds a place to stay with his half-brother Quenu and
his wife Lisa, a member of the Macquart family. With his brother's
help, Florent finds work as a fish inspector at Les Halles, an
enormous central market. Redesigned in the aftermath of the coup,
the market has become a symbol of wealth and power for the French
Second Empire, and is an important hub for the nation's growing
economy. Apolitical in nature-he was sent to prison based on false
information-Florent becomes interested in socialism through his
experience as a laborer and with the encouragement of radical
acquaintances, and soon becomes swept up in a plot to overthrow the
government of Napoleon III. The Fat and the Thin is a story of
family and fate, a thrilling and detailed novel that continues a
series rich enough for its author to explore in twenty total
volumes. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally
typeset manuscript, this edition of Emile Zola's The Fat and the
Thin is a classic work of French literature reimagined for modern
readers.
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Fruitfulness (Paperback)
Emile Zola; Contributions by Mint Editions
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R515
R436
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Fruitfulness (1899) is a novel by French author Emile Zola.
Published as the first installment of his Les Quatre Evangiles, a
series of four novels inspired by the New Testament gospels and
aimed at investigating prominent social issues, Fruitfulness was
written while Zola was living in exile in England following his
advocacy on behalf of Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jew falsely
convicted of spying. An inspired secularist and socialist, Zola
foresaw his final literary project as an essential step forward in
human consciousness and societal evolution, a vision tragically cut
short by his death only several years later. In nineteenth-century
France, following the collapse of the Second Empire, widespread
economic instability has led to a dangerously low birthrate. Forced
to make impossible decisions for the lives of their families,
people have given up raising more than one or two children, leading
to a strain on the workforce and creating a society without the
joys of youth. Against all odds, and despite the harsh judgment of
their peers, Mathieu and Marianne Froment attempt to raise a family
of twelve children. Grounded in love and solidarity, the Froment
family becomes a symbol of perseverance and a model for their
beleaguered community. With a beautifully designed cover and
professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Emile Zola's
Fruitfulness is a classic work of French literature reimagined for
modern readers.
Claude's Confession (1865) is a novel by French author Emile Zola.
Written at night while Zola was employed at Hachette, Claude's
Confession proved scandalous upon publication and resulted in the
loss of his job. Undeterred by the response to his literary debut,
Zola took advantage of his newfound infamy in order to embark on a
career as one of France's foremost experimental writers. Intent on
exploring taboo and the lives of people on the edge of society,
Zola crafts a narrative capable of illuminating the human condition
while humanizing those typically disdained by the literary elite.
Born and raised in Provence, Claude is shocked to find that the
Paris of legend is a city mired in poverty, decay, and loneliness.
As he struggles to make ends meet in order to pay for his tiny
apartment, he takes notice of a young woman who lives in the same
building as him. Although he knows she is a prostitute, his
feelings for him grow stronger than the impulse to look down on her
way of life. After months of silent longing, he opens his door to
find her standing there, desperate for help after being evicted.
Despite his limited income, he welcomes her inside, and their
relationship soon develops into a passionate romance. Claude's
Confession is a story of forbidden love, fading hope, and the false
promise of modern life. Written at the very beginning of Zola's
career, it shows the innerworkings of a young mind interested in
subjects too often ignored by writers, a mind whose guiding
principle is truth and truth alone. With a beautifully designed
cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Emile
Zola's Claude's Confession is a classic work of French literature
reimagined for modern readers.
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