The President of the Chamber remained standing until the faint stir caused by his entry subsided. Then he took his seat, saying rather nonchalantly, in a quiet voice:'The sitting is open.' As always, I am facsinated by translation choices. Above are the opening lines from Brian Nelson's recent 2018 translation of Son Excellence Eugène Rougon, … Continue reading Son Excellence Eugène Rougon | Émile Zola #Zoladdiction
182 years ago today, Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola was born in Paris and for the past nine years, Fanda @Classiclit has hosted Zoladdiction throughout April. I joined in the first two with the only Zola's on my TBR pile - Germinal (1885) and Nana (1880). At that point I didn't really understand how the whole Rougon-Macquart thing … Continue reading Zoladdiction 2022
Émile Zola: A Very Short Introduction is part of the very excellent Oxford University Press Very Short Introduction series. There are over 700 titles in the series covering everything from author biographies, religions and philosophers, medicine and health topics, periods of history, cultural and social issues, to science and maths. If you're on the brink … Continue reading Émile Zola: A Very Short Introduction | Brian Nelson #LiteraryCompanion
La Teuse came in and popped her broom and her feather duster against the alter. Confession one: this story ended up being a chore to read. After six engaging, enthralling Zola's I have hit my first dud with the seventh. Confession two: for the past week I have been trying to read three books that … Continue reading The Sin of Abbé Mouret | Émile Zola #FRAclassic
April is Zoladdiction month with Fanda @ClassicLit! This year I am up to book five in the Rougon-Macquart series - La Faute de l’Abbé Mouret (1875) The Sin of Father Mouret. I will be reading the Oxford University Press edition translated by Valerie Minogue, the President of the Émile Zola Society in London. 'I really don't … Continue reading Zoladdiction 2021
La Conquête de Plassans, or The Conquest of Plassans (1874) is the fourth novel in Émile Zola's twenty-volume Rougon-Macquart series that I have been reading with Fanda for #Zoladdiction. My Oxford World's Classics 2014 edition is translated by Helen Constantine and has an Introduction by *Patrick McGuinness. He reminded me that, Like all of Zola's fiction, … Continue reading The Conquest of Plassans | Émile Zola #FRAclassic
Le Ventre de Paris (also known as The Belly of Paris - a direct translation, or The Fat and the Thinreferring to one of the main ideas explored in the story) is not only an extremely visual story, but a visceral one too. Zola's descriptions of the food markets at Les Halles are colourful, very … Continue reading The Belly of Paris by Émile Zola
La Curée is the second book in Emile Zola's Rougon-Macquart series of books set during the Second Empire in France. I read it this month in honour of Fanda's #Zoladdiction2018. I have many, many thoughts about this story - I'll start off in point form - The translation of the title Haussmann the parks and … Continue reading La Curée (The Kill) By Emile Zola
I'm still reeling from my Nana experience. Zola has created such a vivid world that it's impossible to come away from it untouched or unscathed. Nana, herself, is larger than life even as a sense of doom hangs over her from the start. I sometimes had trouble keeping up with who was who - especially all … Continue reading Nana by Émile Zola
In the Introduction to his last novel, Le Docteur Pascal, Zola gave a recommended reading order. Although it is not really required, as each novel, apparently, stands on its own. Zola's recommended reading order: La Fortune des Rougon (1871)Son Excellence Eugène Rougon (1876)La Curée (1871-2)L'Argent (1891)Le Rêve (1888)La Conquête de Plassans (1874)Pot-Bouille (1882)Au Bonheur des Dames (1883)La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret (1875)Une Page d'amour (1878)Le Ventre … Continue reading Zola Reading List
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