Tag Archives: Zola
Zola Translations
Due to questions about the merits of one translation over another, and just how much the Vizetellys chopped from the original Zola novels in the Rougon-Macquart cycle, I decided to write a post comparing passages from Zola’s L’Assommoir. I’d say L’Assommoir is one of the … Continue reading
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Doctor Pascal by Zola
Doctor Pascal is Zola’s final novel in the twenty-volume Rougon-Macquart cycle. Zola wrote the Rougon-Macquart series as a social history of France’s Second Empire of Napoleon III (1852 to 1870), and so history is told through the stories of various family members. The novels extend from the … Continue reading
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Debacle by Zola
Debacle is the 19th novel in Zola’s 20 volume Rougon-Macquart series. The novels are a history of France’s Second Empire told through two branches of a family and set against the backdrop of historical events. The Rougons are the wealthier, legitimate and supposedly the more respectable branch of the family. … Continue reading
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Money by Zola
Money is the eighteenth volume in Zola’s spectacular Rougon-Macquart cycle–a “natural and social history of a family during the Second Empire.” The series is winding down, and as it turns out, so is the Second Empire. Under examination in these … Continue reading
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The Dream by Zola
The Dream (La Reve) is the 16th novel in Zola’s twenty-volume Rougon-Marquart cycle. For those who’ve read my Rougon-Macquart posts, you already know that I am reading the novels in the order in which they were written. This is not the way everyone … Continue reading
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The Earth by Zola
The soil and nothing else…. The Earth (La Terre) is novel number 15 in Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series. My Penguin version, translated by Douglas Parmee runs to 500 pages, so it’s a substantial book, and in it Zola creates the unique world of the peasants … Continue reading
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The Masterpiece by Emile Zola
The Masterpiece (L’Oeuvre) is the fourteenth novel in Zola’s twenty-volume Rougon- Macquart series, and it is the most autobiographical. The Rougon-Macquart series was planned in 1868 and written over the course of the next twenty-five years, the series was intended … Continue reading
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Germinal by Emile Zola
When I first began reading Emile Zola’s twenty-volume Rougon-Macquart series, there were some titles I really looked forward to, and Germinal was one of them. Germinal is number 13 in the series and is considered to be Zola’s masterpiece. It … Continue reading
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The Belly Of Paris by Emile Zola
I am not normally someone who rushes out to buy the latest translation of a classic. In fact, I tend to be a bit suspicious of new translations: case in point–a few years ago I bought Remembrance of Things Past … Continue reading
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The Joy of Life by Emile Zola
Naturalist novelist Emile Zola penned his 20 volume Rougon-Macquart cycle over a twenty-five period with the idea that he would explore the subject of hereditary through one family. By examining various members of the Rougon-Macquart family under the Second Empire, … Continue reading
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