Émile Zola Collection: The Fortune of the Rougons - Chapter II

[Zulfiya]

This is the thread to discuss chapter II. We are discussing it for the next TEN days, and the new thread for the next chapter will be open on August 29. Please post your thoughts below. The previous week was a huge success with interesting ideas, enlightening links to site with the historical information and stimulating ideas. Let's keep the good momentum!

[Zulfiya]

In chapter two Zola uses an interesting trick and moves the action back to the past to tell us about the history of the family whose life will be scrutinized in the next twenty novels. He focuses his attention on the burgeoning middle class. As with the first chapter, he first lays the scene for the historical expose of Plassans and introduces us to the eccentric and slightly dim-witted Adelaide, who was the symbolic seed for Les Rougon-Macquart.
In my opinion, Zola's naturalism is even more flamboyant when he describes Adelaide's children and how their personalities are molded by their parental heritage. My edition of the cycle says that Zola actually was fascinated by the Darwin's theory of evolution and was studying it extensively in his preparation for this cycle. He also manages to create characters that are not sympathetic but so true to life that there are very 'tangible' in their existence. He explores how nature and genetics predetermined their life and makes them very believable, and not necessarily likeable.
His tone is quite neutral and reserved, and his voice is objective. Again, this part of the novel is just a family chronicle, and although we read about the personal frustrations, the level of intimacy in the novel, namely our exposure to thoughts and feelings of the Rougon family, is very cursory and leaves much to personal speculation.
Pierre Rougon is an evil mastermind of his family when he disinherits his half-siblings and tries to get rid of his mentally deranged mother, but again, there is not emotional charge in the narrative, and much is left for readers to experience emotionally on their own. This chapter is an emotional test of sorts when readers are asked to fill in the emotional content of the novel/chronicle.

This chapter can also be viewed as a social exposé as it reflects social changes in the society, universal parental expectations on education and professional occupation of their children and their self-sustenance. Pierre and his wife Felicite have had high expectations of their children, but so far, in their golden years, they have to settle for a low middle class lifestyle with the three-room apartment, and Felicite has to take certain measures to cover the dilapidated nature of their living room.

On a personal note, I find the description of their bedroom quite amusing. The Rougons assume that no one will ever be in the bedroom; as a result they trash it with the things they should have thrown away long ago and turn it into a shed. I am sure many readers recognized themselves in this description – we, human beings are often unable to part with our past and keep the unnecessary memorabilia of our crushed hopes and destroyed expectations.

I also enjoyed Zola's verbal portraits in this chapter; in particular, I find Felicite's description quite amusing and revealing.
She looked like one of those brown, lean, noisy grasshoppers, which in their sudden leaps often strike their heads against the almond-trees. Thin, flat-breasted, with pointed shoulders and a face like that of a pole-cat, her features singularly sunken and attenuated, it was not easy to tell her age; she looked as near fifteen as thirty, although she was in reality only nineteen, four years younger than her husband. There was much feline slyness in the depths of her little black eyes, which suggested gimlet holes. Her low, bumpy forehead, her slightly depressed nose with delicate quivering nostrils, her thin red lips and prominent chin, parted from her cheeks by strange hollows, all suggested the countenance of an artful dwarf, a living mask of intrigue, an active, envious ambition. With all her ugliness, however, Felicite possessed a sort of gracefulness which rendered her seductive.

A truly biological description that reveals so much about Felicite's nature:-)

[Robin P, Moderator]

This chapter is more what I expected from Zola. Gone are the sweet young lovers by moonlight. Relationships are either bargains for money or power, as in Pierre's choice of wife, or they are some kind of animal attraction. Adelaide, for instance, seems to have an attraction to "bad boys' - both her husband and lover are rough, lazy, and ill thought of by the town. I suppose they contribute to the hybrid vigor of the family.

In this world, you can't trust anyone, even (or especially) your own family members. Parents want to make a better life for their children, but the children turn on them. Brother lies to brother and tricks him out of his inheritance.

[Zulfiya]

Robin wrote: "This chapter is more what I expected from Zola."

There was so much implied drama in this chapter that it could have been the material for a novel or two: lies, machinations, disillusionment, abuse, financial failure ...

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Zulfiya, your quote of the description of Felicite is one of the things I like so much about Zola. Zola imbues his characterizations with both physical and emotional attributes. When I compare to Dickens, I prefer Dickens prose and think it far superior, but Zola's characterizations far outdistance those of Dickens. These are people I can believe existed.

[Zulfiya]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Zola imbues his characterizations with both physical and emotional attributes. "

The description definitely caught my eye when I was reading the chapter, but I had to read and re-read it several times before I fully understood its linguistic value - it is, as you said, physical enough to be catchy, but it is also emotionally implicating.

[MadgeUK]

The 'verbal portraits' are based on the pseudo-science of Phrenology popularised by Franz Gall in the early 19C and readers of Zola would have known which phrenological types he was referring to by these descriptions. It is part of Zola's 'realism' that he uses, and believes in, these 'scientific' descriptions:-

http://www.phrenology.org/intro.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20939975...

[Andrea]

Loved this chapter, nevermind the fact that the plot barely advanced. I find that because Zola is so great at depicting his characters, I have very little problems remembering who is who, even though the cast is so large.

It's interesting that once Pierre married Felicite, he suddenly is pushed to the background by the overbearing ambitions of his wife. Being so cunning and resourceful during his single years, his biggest concern later on became to stay afloat and maintain their presence, rather than to advance rapidly.

[Robin P, Moderator]

It's a little disconcerting to see the use of "scientific" analyses of people's physical and behavioral characteristics, knowing how they have been used to justify slavery, mistreatment of indigenous peoples, and eventually Nazi theories.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Robin wrote: "It's a little disconcerting to see the use of "scientific" analyses of people's physical and behavioral characteristics, knowing how they have been used to justify slavery, mistreatment of indigeno..."

I don't think you're going to get late 20th to 21st Century enlightenment in this series. Some of what you read is going to be very difficult.

[Zulfiya]

MadgeUK wrote: "It is part of Zola's 'realism' that he uses, and believes in, these 'scientific' descriptions:-"

Thank you, MadgeUK. WHile reading, I suspected Zola had had a certain misconception about phrenology, but even if the verbal portrait is based on something that not scientifically accurate, it is still a very memorable passage.

[Zulfiya]

Andrea wrote: "I find that because Zola is so great at depicting his characters, I have very little problems remembering who is who, even though the cast is so large. "

I found this historical family excursus quite entertaining!

[Robin P, Moderator]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Robin wrote: "It's a little disconcerting to see the use of "scientific" analyses of people's physical and behavioral characteristics, knowing how they have been used to justify slavery, mistreatme..."

I agree, we need to be in Zola's world, not ours, but it makes me wonder what "truths" we have today will seem outdated in the future.

[MadgeUK]

Robin: We forget how common these theories of phrenology and eugenics were, not only in Nazi Germany, and they were upheld by very prominent people. See Eugenics Popularisation in this archive:-:-

http://eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/l...

In the Rougons, Zola was expounding common beliefs about 'degeneracy theory' which subsequently gained credence and is detailed in the above website under Scientific Origins of Eugenics. Its flaws are discussed here:-

http://www.wehaitians.com/bad%20seed%...

[Zulfiya]

Jack wrote: "Zola does a good job of introducing a large handful of characters without making us struggle to differentiate them."

Spot on! A number of new characters, but it was quite easy to follow. The shift in the narrative voice was also abrupt but easy to adapt to.

[Zulfiya]

Jack wrote: "In fact, I liked the way he talked about it. What was new thinking then may be simply accepted by those of us post-Darwin, post-Freud, and post-DNA. "

That was indeed a revolutionary approach for his time. We tend to take such descriptions for granted.

[Wendel]

Finally I managed to digest the 'Fortune' - now I'll try to edit a few of the remarks I jotted down along the way. While the first chapter introduced us to a romantic love story (can there be anything more romantic than a graveyard?), the second episode (chapters 2-4) informs us about the backgrounds of the Rougon-Maquart family. The tone has changed and this must be Zola's famous 'naturalism'.

I do not know much about his literary philosophy and its development - where does his naturalism differ from realism? But on first sight I wonder how realistic this story is. Often it seems social satire (quite amusing) rather than a play with convincing characters. I rather like that horrible Antoine Maquart, so obviously I do not really believe in him - otherwise he would have made me angry.

It seems that - at least in this first volume of the Rougon-Maquart - naturalism is primarily expressed as an interest in the seamy side of life: we are spared no gory details. But I wonder: how bad are people in real life? I mean, how often do we encounter people like Antoine Maquart? Maybe 'bad' people are rather lazy, benighted and confused (a bit like us good guys)?

Realism, shouldn't that be about us, how we stumble and fall?

[Zulfiya]

Wendel wrote: "Finally I managed to digest the 'Fortune' - now I'll try to edit a few of the remarks I jotted down along the way. While the first chapter introduced us to a romantic love story (can there be anyth..."

Zola definitely puts the distance between his characters and his position as a narrator. I think it might be challenging because this detachment is mostly for the twentieth century, but even they practice the trick of stream of consciousness that would give readers a chance to see the inner world of characters. Here the novel is like the silent old black and white movie where it takes time and effort to penetrate the distance.

[Wendel]

I take it that Zola's theory of heredity is also an aspect of his naturalism. Personality traits of the parents returning in the children. But how and why? Zola may have studied Darwin, but I don't see any trace here of the latters subtle mind. Actually, I have great difficulty summarising Zola's ideas on heredity - it seems that even social classes have a way of passing on their characteristics. Anyway, Zola took it all very seriously, he even thought his writing had scientific qualities (the French have a tradition of believing in social science - positivism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positivism).

According to Patterson* (writing in 1912):
His position was that the novelist is, like the scientist, an observer and an experimentalist combined. The observer, he says, gives the facts as he has observed them, fixes the starting-point, lays the solid ground on which his characters are to walk and his phenomena to develop. Then the experimentalist appears and starts the experiment, that is to say, he makes the personages in a particular story move, in order to show that the succession of events will be just what the determinism of phenomena together with study demand that they should be. The author must abstain from comment, never show his own personality, and never turn to the reader for sympathy; he must, as Mr. Andrew Lang has observed, be as cold as a vivisectionist at a lecture. Zola thought the application of this method would raise the position of the novel to the level of a science, and that it would become a medium for the expression of established truths.
The fallacy of the argument has been exposed by more than one critic. It is self-evident that the "experiments" by the novelist cannot be made on subjects apart from himself, but are made by him and in him; so that they prove more regarding his own temperament than about what he professes to regard as the inevitable actions of his characters. The conclusion drawn by a writer from such actions must always be open to the retort that he invented the whole himself and that fiction is only fiction. But to Zola in the late sixties the theory seemed unassailable and it was upon it that he founded the whole edifice of Les Rougon-Macquart.

* http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5103/5...