The Fortune of the Rougons

The book that opens Zola’s twenty-novel Rougon-Macquart saga traces the family to its root, the unstable Adélaïde Fouque, and the two branches, respectable and disreputable, that spring from her. The action gathers around Napoleon III’s coup of December 1851, as insurgents march through the provincial town of Plassans and the grasping Rougons calculate which side will make them rich. Woven through the political violence is the tender, ill-fated love of young Silvère and Miette, whose idealism the older generation coldly exploits. Zola lays out the heredity and ambition that will drive every book to follow. It works as a self-contained drama and as a doorway into his great cycle. Offered as a free PDF and EPUB edition.