Jim’s Reviews > The Fortune of the Rougons > Status Update

Pierre paused for a moment on the deserted footpath. He heaved a deep sigh of relief and triumph. So those dastardly republicans had really abandoned Plassans to him. The town belonged to him now; it slept like the stupid thing it was. There it lay, silent and serene, calm and confident; he had only to stretch out his hand to take possession of it.

Every political party has its grotesques and its villains. Antoine Macquart, consumed with envy and hatred, and dreaming of getting his revenge on society, welcomed the Republic as an era of happiness that would allow him to fill his pockets from his neighbour's cashbox, and even strangle his neighbour if he objected in any way.

In the closed, isolated town of Plassans, where class divisions were so clearly marked in 1848, the impact of distant political events was very slight. Even today the voice of the people is hardly heard there; the bourgeoisie shows its usual prudence, the nobility its silent despair, and the clergy its shrewd cunning.

[T]he nobility and the lower classes share the Cours Sauvaire between them. For more than a century, the nobility have chosen to walk on the south side, which is lined with large hôtels and is the first to escape the heat of the sun; the lower classes have to content themselves with the walk on the north side, where the cafes, inns, and tobacconists' shops are located.

This work, which will consist of several episodes, is therefore, as I see it, the natural and social history of a family under the Second Empire.