Unjustly deported to Devil's Island following Louis-Napoleon's coup-d' tat in December 1851, Florent Quenu escapes and returns to Paris. He finds t...
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Dec 16, 2009
amy
rated it: 
(first of all, this cover is CRAP)
I wrote some of my thesis about this book (!!!), in part on the imagery of smells in the sections describing Les Halles (Parisian central marketplace built in the mid-19th century). Zola writes incredible, wonderful, sometimes overpoweringly detailed and evocative portraits of the market goods, from silvery fish to pungent cheeses to flowers to fruit to meat to...there is a lot. In contrast with the main character Florent's physical/emotional leann More...
I wrote some of my thesis about this book (!!!), in part on the imagery of smells in the sections describing Les Halles (Parisian central marketplace built in the mid-19th century). Zola writes incredible, wonderful, sometimes overpoweringly detailed and evocative portraits of the market goods, from silvery fish to pungent cheeses to flowers to fruit to meat to...there is a lot. In contrast with the main character Florent's physical/emotional leann More...
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Feb 05, 2012
Fabien
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Le ventre de Paris, ou le troisième tome de la saga des Rougon-Macquart, nous fais découvrir, comme son nom l'indique, les Halles de Paris. Nous y pénétrerons en même temps que Florent, jeune homme échappé de Cayenne après y avoir été injustement déporté, pour y déambuler ensuite avec lui dans le marché aux viandes puis aux poissons.
Dans ce microcosme où rivalités, jalousie et petitesse se bouscule, Zola nous fais visiter et nous explique le fonctionnement des Halles, ce point névra More...
Dans ce microcosme où rivalités, jalousie et petitesse se bouscule, Zola nous fais visiter et nous explique le fonctionnement des Halles, ce point névra More...
Aug 19, 2011
dina
rated it:
I would give it a 4.5 really, since I very much enjoyed reading it at the time, but in retrospect, I wouldn't call it a most deeply affecting book. The sensory descriptions of Les Halles and the historic narrative of the times are very good, but the main story of the confused would-be revolutionary Florent and the opposing petite bourgeois ways of his brother Quenu is lacking something like real passion... the whole thing seems very carefully and expertly researched but not actually lived. It is
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Jul 25, 2011
Kezia
rated it:
Pauvre Florent. A falsely accused escapee from French Guiana arrives home a much changed man - to a much changed Paris. It's Zola's third book and easy to see how this laid the foundation for his future works of art. While this book in no way compares to Nana, L'Assomoir, Germinal, or his other masterpieces, it is loaded with wonderful symbolism related to food and justice. Les Halles itself represents the gastronomic center of Europe, therefore the world. A character's description of local resi
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Jan 10, 2010
Louise
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A story of Les Halles and the merchants who made it the very soul of Paris in the middle of the 19th century. This is a tale of Florent, a man who, against all odds, has escaped from Devil's Island. he struggled to return to his brother in Paris who runs a charcuterie in Rue Rambuteau which faces the market.
More importantly, the story shows the politics of the mid 19th century when Napoleon III appointed Baron Haussmann to transform Paris and the rebuilding of the market in the s More...
More importantly, the story shows the politics of the mid 19th century when Napoleon III appointed Baron Haussmann to transform Paris and the rebuilding of the market in the s More...
Jul 27, 2011
Stephen
rated it:
Zola certainly did his research thoroughly though I have to agree with Sabrina: the cornucopia of description down to the minutest detail will either have you enthralled or skipping whole paragraphs to refind the action. While sometimes you may find your stomach turning, I did particularly enjoy his association of cheeses with musical instruments.
The novel follows the doomed path of the unworldly, well-meaning and naive Florent after his escape from Devil's Island and return to a changed Pa More...
The novel follows the doomed path of the unworldly, well-meaning and naive Florent after his escape from Devil's Island and return to a changed Pa More...
Jul 27, 2011
Les Halles, the huge marketplace in 19th century Paris, in Emile Zola's The Belly of Paris is where Florent has fled from injustice. In his life "undercover", he is pulled in many directions and misunderstood and despised. This world is full of gossips and liars. Zola repeatedly shows how the oppressed turn on one another rather than against their true oppressors.
I've read much of the Rougon-Macquart series. They have an intricacy due to the connections between main characte More...
I've read much of the Rougon-Macquart series. They have an intricacy due to the connections between main characte More...
Apr 28, 2011
Birdbath
rated it: 
Zola expects his readers to savor his descriptions of the full, fat, fuming, pulsating, digesting, belly of Paris with a solemnity that is entirely uncharacteristic of the descriptions themselves. As a reader, there is a natural inclination to either stuff and swallow the fatty words that define the plump Parisian society or look away, groaning from a belly-ache caused by greasy verbosity. Despite being bored, over stimulated, hungry and sick for about the first third of the book, I perked up
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May 15, 2011
Kaisha
rated it:
This is the first Zola that I have read and so can't compare it to his other novels, but was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this this book. Extremely visceral in his descriptions of the Parisian market, with an over abundance of fish, meat, cheese, vegetables and fruit. The story gets a little bogged down by Zola's political plots and I found those parts to be the least interesting but I would heartily suggest this novel to anyone who has an interest in food, food production and food
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May 24, 2011
Maggy Mistake
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Leggere "Il Ventre di Parigi" è soprattutto un'esperienza olfattiva e uditiva. L'olfatto è senza dubbio il senso predominante: non si può non sentire il profumo della frutta, l'odore dei formaggi, l'olezzo della carne e dei vicoli di Parigi. Il fetore del mercato e il profumo dei fiori.
Uditivo perchè a prescindere dalla storia meschina che viene raccontata, il protagonista corale e assoluto rimane il chiacchericcio dei commercianti, gente comune che parla, discute e decid More...
Uditivo perchè a prescindere dalla storia meschina che viene raccontata, il protagonista corale e assoluto rimane il chiacchericcio dei commercianti, gente comune che parla, discute e decid More...
Feb 28, 2011
Paula
rated it:
Set in the quartier of Les Halles in Paris in the time of the Second Empire (Napoleon III) circa 1858-60. In this era (post 1848) of demolition and reconstruction (Baron Haussmann remade Paris into a City of Light with wide boulevards & imposing edifices replacing narrow streets & crowded medieval neighborhoods)one of the most impressive transformations was the construction of a covered wholesale market in the center of Paris.
One could get lost in Zola's detailed descriptions of food and c More...
One could get lost in Zola's detailed descriptions of food and c More...
Nov 19, 2009
Meridth
rated it:
Here's a mini review I did for one of my favorite blogs (http://www.wondersandmarvels.com)
"After reading Emile Zola's The Belly of Paris, I feel like I have visited the mid 19th Century Les Halles marketplace in France. Zola's novel is based on the life of Florent, an escaped political prisoner and how he influences his half brother's family. Zola's lively descriptions totally sucked me in. I know exactly what every street corner looks and smells like. I have a good idea what th More...
"After reading Emile Zola's The Belly of Paris, I feel like I have visited the mid 19th Century Les Halles marketplace in France. Zola's novel is based on the life of Florent, an escaped political prisoner and how he influences his half brother's family. Zola's lively descriptions totally sucked me in. I know exactly what every street corner looks and smells like. I have a good idea what th More...
Jan 30, 2012
Barbaraehanna
rated it:
Young Zola tries his hand at description.... No opportunity is lost to turn off the action and tell us more about the cheese. Which is great when you teach a course on description and need a new 19th century text.
Le jeune Zola s'essaie à la description. A tout moment, l'action peut s'immobiliser pour laisser la place à la description (des fleurs, des fromages etc). Ce qui est superbe quand on va enseigner un cours sur la description au 2e semestre. Les passages descriptifs seraient pe More...
Le jeune Zola s'essaie à la description. A tout moment, l'action peut s'immobiliser pour laisser la place à la description (des fleurs, des fromages etc). Ce qui est superbe quand on va enseigner un cours sur la description au 2e semestre. Les passages descriptifs seraient pe More...
Nov 21, 2010
Steve
rated it:
I guess you need to be into over-written 19th French literature to enjoy this novel. I'm not. Part of Zola's 20 volume Les Rougon-Macquart series, I read it for its description of Les Halles (opened just a few years before publication of this novel, torn down and replaced by a much less impressive modern version in 1971)), the food and the denizens. Sorry, but page after page of just listing every fruit, vegetable, fish etc etc does not grab me. The plot all but disappears and is fragmented
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Oct 03, 2011
Maxine
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Aug 19, 2010
Anne
rated it:
This is a novel for foodies, but not for the faint of heart. It is unbelievably fun and sad to read. Sausage, fruit, cheese, fish, vegetables, butter are all sold in Les Halles (the enclosed market arcades of Paris), and these characters are born, shaped, and melting into the the products they make and sell. The lines between food and human (like the blurring lines between inside and outside in Les Halles) are never stable. This is gritty, late century, Second Empire Paris and idle flaneurs, vol
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Jul 25, 2010
Diana
rated it:
Loved it! The language was so colourful. The story is about how produce went to what Zola called "the Belly of Paris," Les Halles, the great market hall built in the 1850s by Victor Baltard. Right in the centre of Paris, a few blocks from the Louvre, the building and its surroundings were a roiling chaos. Wagons squeezed through the narrow streets in the pre-dawn darkness. The ongoing struggles between beautiful Lisa (meat) and beautiful Norman (fish). Lisa has taken care of her broth
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Jan 10, 2012
Nancy
rated it:
Very interesting descriptions of Paris, the food, and the food markets. A starving Florent arrives in the lush food market of Paris after escaping the penal colony in Guyana. He had been unjustly arrested several years earlier and then deported. Back in Paris he becomes the food inspector at the market. He ends up upsetting the family and people around him because of mostly unfounded gossip. He also gets involved in a revolutionary group. Characters were very well developed (and what chara
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May 10, 2011
Andy
rated it:
A tale of two brothers: a revolutionary escaped from prison and his simpleton brother who blissfully butchers meat. Which one benefits the public more, the political martyr or the epicurean? That's the question Emile Zola poses in "The Belly of Paris", an outrageous, disturbing satire.
The showstopper of the book, however, is Florent’s recollection of escaping Devil’s Island told in a hot, suffocating basement while blood sausages are being made, to a small child in fairy ta More...
The showstopper of the book, however, is Florent’s recollection of escaping Devil’s Island told in a hot, suffocating basement while blood sausages are being made, to a small child in fairy ta More...
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Aug 25, 2009
Zoe
rated it:
'The Belly of Paris' is a beautifully descriptive and brilliantly constructed work. Zola's vivid depiction of Les Halles do bring the markets alive and the food descriptions are nothing less than astonishing, as you would expect from Zola. The strength of this novel is definitely in the description and in the vibrant portrayal of the people who live and work around the market. The plot is quite thin, in comparison with other novels in the Rougon-Macquart series, and it certainly does not poss
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Aug 30, 2009
Jess
rated it:
This is a book that i was required to read for an English 1A class. It was difficult become engrossed in the novel, but once I was immersed into the world of the 19th century Parisian markets this became one of the most unique experiences that I have had in my reading career. I felt a kinship with the main character, Florent, as well as the author, Zola, in that their feelings of distaste for the gluttony and excess that their society exhibits seem to mirror my own. I highly recommend this book
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Jan 29, 2012
Eric
rated it:
Like Bill Buford’s Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany and Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London, I came to read The Belly of Paris by way of a recommendation from Anthony Bourdain, and as with those two books, I was not disappointed. Unlike those two gripping works, though, with their distinctly modern feel, the nineteen-century Belly of Paris taught me something about my own deteriorating, Internet-ad
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Aug 07, 2011
Amanda
rated it:
This is probably the best Zola I’ve read since Germinal. The translation, by Mark Kurlansky, was fabulous. Each of the six chapters opens up a new section of life in the Paris food market. Food becomes a metaphor for everything going on around it: life, death, revolt, sex, gossip, politics. Les Halles, the market, overflows with color and smell, until it becomes a putrid melée infecting everything around and inside it. Florent, the main character, cannot survive in this mess, and is buffeted fro
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Oct 10, 2010
J.
rated it:
Zola seems to have borrowed a kind of effect, from poetry, with this effort: there are large technicolor blocks of description here, monumental scenic prose-backdrops, illustrated right down to the feel of the grit on the sidewalk. Sense of place is everything here. There is barely room to wedge the particulars of character and story into the gaps between atmosphere & scene... And like the painters of his era, he's also intrigued at the gradations wrought by time of day and weather chang More...
Jan 19, 2012
Mike
rated it:
The Belly of Paris contains many excellent literary images of Paris in the late 1850s: The action, such as it is, takes place between 1858 and 1859, mostly in the market area of Les Halles. Zola created many three-dimensional characters, but marooned them in a lame plot with a weak, predictable climax. If you enjoy excellent prose - there's a reason we're still reading Zola in the 21st century - and don't demand slam-bang action on every page, try The Belly of Paris. You'll learn a lot about wha
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Jan 29, 2012
PM
rated it:
This is a timeless, stand-alone, masterwork. Zola abuses us with the entire sensory world. This is an excellent portrait of the people & the place. The reason I believe it to be timeless is; this work occurs in a very present state of being. Zola is so empassioned by this market district he transforms it into the actual center of the Universe. The classism is just as alive today as it is at the time of this writing. Zola rips down the drapes from the highest to the lowest and exposes the matria
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Dec 08, 2009
Larry
rated it:
OK, but not one of Zola's best. Personal and political intrigue set in Les Halles market in Paris in the 1850s. Zola is obsessed with providing very detailed descriptions of the look and smell of various foods. At one point, the story grinds to a halt while he devotes two pages to descibing the smells of various cheeses. But...Zola does immerse you in the life of ordinary people in that historic era, which makes it an interesting read.
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Aug 06, 2009
Louis
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The more Zola I read the more I just simply love his stories.I am seriously contemplating reading them in French just to see what its like in the original language.This 3rd installment of 20 in the Rougon-Macquart family saga.His descriptiveness reaches new heights in this book.I felt I was walking through "Les Halles" market with every sentence I read.This is what classic literature is all about.
Jul 17, 2008
Peter
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The pleasure of this book is all in the description -- the plot is pretty thin, the characters not all that engaging (our hero is so passive and dim that he's hard to get too attached to), and the moral, while perhaps shocking at the time, is threadbare now. (Just to be fair, I'm reading a translation, and some of this could be the translator). But the descriptions make up for the rest -- Zola could make a cabbage serve many purposes, depending on the emotional state of the observer and the need
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Feb 08, 2011
Erika
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The Belly of Paris is full of amazing, detailed descriptions of food (charcuterie, cheese, poultry, fish, vegetables, fruit). It also is a brilliantly colorful and animated view of the Les Halles market stalls of mid-19th century Paris. As a portrait of that place and time the book was vivid and incredibly alive. The premise of the story--the fats vs. the thins--was a compelling idea, but I felt it was not quite as rich as it could have been. Not the best Zola I've read, but still well worth rea
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