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Les Rougon-Macquart #2

by Émile Zola

The Kill (La Curée) is the second volume in Zola's great cycle of twenty novels, Les Rougon-Macquart, and the first to establish Paris - the capital of modernity - as the centre of Zola's narrative world. Conceived as a representation of the uncontrollable 'appetites' unleashed by the Second Empire (1852-70) and the transformation of the city by Baron Haussmann, the novel combines into a single, powerful vision the twin themes of lust for money and lust for pleasure. The all-pervading promiscuity of the new Paris is reflected in the dissolute and frenetic lives of an unscrupulous property speculator, Saccard, his neurotic wife Renée, and her dandified lover, Saccard's son Maxime.

Genres: Classics, France, Fiction, French Literature, 19th Century, Historical Fiction, Novels

321 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1871

About the author

Émile Zola was a prominent French novelist, journalist, and playwright widely regarded as a key figure in the development of literary naturalism. His work profoundly influenced both literature and society through its commitment to depicting reality with scientific objectivity and exploring the impact of environment and heredity on human behavior. Born and raised in France, Zola experienced early personal hardship following the death of his father, which deeply affected his understanding of social and economic struggles—a theme that would later permeate his writings.
Zola began his literary career working as a clerk for a publishing house, where he developed his skills and cultivated a passion for literature. His early novels, such as Thérèse Raquin, gained recognition for their intense psychological insight and frank depiction of human desires and moral conflicts. However, it was his monumental twenty-volume series, Les Rougon-Macquart, that established his lasting reputation. This cycle of novels offered a sweeping examination of life under the Second French Empire, portraying the lives of a family across generations and illustrating how hereditary traits and social conditions shape individuals’ destinies. The series embodies the naturalist commitment to exploring human behavior through a lens informed by emerging scientific thought.
Beyond his literary achievements, Zola was a committed social and political activist. His involvement in the Dreyfus Affair is one of the most notable examples of his dedication to justice. When Captain Alfred Dreyfus was wrongfully accused and convicted of treason, Zola published his famous open letter, J’Accuse…!, which condemned the French military and government for corruption and anti-Semitism. This act of courage led to his prosecution and temporary exile but played a crucial role in eventual justice for Dreyfus and exposed deep divisions in French society.
Zola’s personal life was marked by both stability and complexity. He married Éléonore-Alexandrine Meley, who managed much of his household affairs, and later had a long-term relationship with Jeanne Rozerot, with whom he fathered two children. Throughout his life, Zola remained an incredibly prolific writer, producing not only novels but also essays, plays, and critical works that investigated the intersections between literature, science, and society.
His legacy continues to resonate for its profound impact on literature and for his fearless commitment to social justice. Zola’s work remains essential reading for its rich narrative detail, social critique, and pioneering approach to the realistic portrayal of human life. His role in the Dreyfus Affair stands as a powerful example of the intellectual’s responsibility to speak truth to power.

Reviews

[Luís · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zola continues his "social study" with Aristide Rougon, now Saccard, in Paris. He seeks by all means to make a fortune. However, death takes his first wife when fate knocks on his door.
Once again, Zola brilliantly demonstrates the opportunism of an upstart. The character of characters worked to perfection. We feel the protagonists of the story come to life before our eyes.
It is also an opportunity for the author to highlight women's roles and positions. To others, simple objects are means for their husbands to obtain thanks for their intervention, power, or relations.
It is also a masterful demonstration of the frivolity and inconstancy of women who have always had money that burns their fingers—an exceptionally well-described relationship with the financier.
We must admit that Zola is the undisputed master of descriptions: living rooms, dresses, landscapes, and characters. By reading this author, we are in the middle of a film where everything is thought out and mastered.
I am often overwhelmed by Zola's writing, which is so cruel, cynical, and poetic at times.
I often wonder how a man could be so fair and precise in his social study, mainly since he was only about thirty when this novel appeared.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Kill by Emile Zola is the second in his ‘Les Rougon Macquart’ book cycle. This 20 book series was started in 1871 and completed in 1893 and covers the period in France known as the Second Empire, a period in which Louis- Napoléon Bonaparte, by means of a coup d’etat in 1851, claimed absolute power.
The book cycle features members and branches of the Rougon and Marquart families introduced to us in the first book of the series - The Fortune Of The Rougons. All books can be read as stand alone novels.
After reading and being impressed by ‘Germinal’ Zolas famous novel from later in the series, I decided to undertake the project of gradually reading the books in order.
The rule of Louis-Napoleon was a time of fresh thinking, populism and a massive modernisation of France. The railways system was vastly improved and much of Paris was rebuilt. Many of the dramatic wide boulevards and impressive edifices we know today came from this period, many designed by Georges-Eugène Haussmann the famous architect.
During this period, whole swathes of Paris were bought up to be redeveloped. This manic land speculation led to complicated deals, fraudulent practices and all sorts of lying and cheating in the stampede by those trying to get rich.
Zola, in The Kill, shines a light on this corruption and the obscene wealth that ensues.
Aristide Rougon, introduced to us in the first book, a fickle, unpleasant character with absolutely no moral compass, moves with his family to Paris. There he becomes very rich, very quick by way of property speculation and a myriad of very suspect business dealings. He changes his name and soon takes on a beautiful new wife. His vain, indolent but quick witted son Maxime, becomes a darling of society.
The language in The Kill is heavily lyrical, dense and sensuous in places. There is a sexual dimension to much of the imagery that suits the story of shocking forbidden love and excess. There is also a gritty reality and unflinching objectivity in the writing, unlike contemporaries such as Dickens.
This is a political novel and Zola’s criticism of the self serving, monied, upper and middle classes is clear.
Zola’s aim of this book cycle was to to create an almost scientific examination of French society and to highlight the everyday lives of citizens from all walks of life.
The quality of the books vary and The Kill is not one of the most talked about in the series but despite some slow and overwritten sections, I enjoyed it greatly and am keen to read the next instalment.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel reads like one very long hangover: just below the conscious mind, there lives a life of opulence, excess and absinthe. You retire from it more than a little bit drunk, more than a little bit confused, more than a little bit thirsty for something more.

A curée is the portion thrown to the hounds, after a hunt. It would be fair to sum the novel as a representation of the division of the spoils, for in this book there are as many hounds as there are hunters; and as they grasp, and snarl, and growl and tear at the city of Paris, it is difficult to distinguish who is the hunter and who the hound.

This is Paris, in the 1850s-60s, in the Second Empire, under the hand of Napoleon III. His vision for a "new Paris" was carried out by Georges-Eugène Haussman, his prefect, and "master of urban renewal". While the sentiment behind the initial revitalization might have been a valid one, it soon ate Paris alive with its corruption, exploitation and extortion schemes. A seedier bed of scoundrels is difficult to imagine:

This was the time when the rush for spoils filled a corner of the forest with the yelping of the hounds, the cracking of whips, the flaring of torches. The appetites let loose were satisfied at last, shamelessly, amid the sound of crumbling neighbourhoods and fortunes made in six months. The city had become an orgy of gold and women. Vice, coming from on high, flowed through the gutters, spread out over the ornamental waters, shot up in the fountain of the public gardens, and fell on the roofs as fine rain. At night, when people crossed the bridges, it seemed as if the Seine drew along with it, through the sleeping city, all the refuse of the streets, crumbs fallen from tables, bows of lace left on couches, false hair forgotten in cabs, banknotes that had slipped out of bodices, everything thrown out of the window by the brutality of desire and the immediate satisfaction of appetites. Then, amid the troubled sleep of Paris, and even more clearly than during its feverish quest in broad daylight, one felt a growing sense of madness, the voluptuous nightmare of a city obsessed with gold and flesh.

In the very heart of this debauchery rises Aristide Saccard (né Rougon, for he is none other than fils de Pierre Rougon, the miscreant from the first novel of this series.) Not only is he at the heart of the corruption; he is the creator of much of it, scheming and plotting to his very soul's content, as he gambles himself into more and more ill-gotten gains and ensnares his wife's fortunes for his own purposes.

And also into the heart of this debauchery rises Renée, Aristide's second wife, his junior by decades, who is predestined to rise and fall, like Anna Karenina, like Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Arguably, she is the French equivalent, for her life is just as frantic and dissolute and her fate speaks of an equally broken and disconsolate ending. The heartbreak that I felt was real, for surely Renée, much like Anna, much like Tess was more "sinned against than sinning". There are, in fact, as many echoes of Anna in Renée as there are shades of Tess -- a wonderful amalgam of the two most pitiful, lamentable heroines in 19th century literature.

This is a novel of lasciviousness and cupidity: greed and hunger for gold; financial gain at its most perverted; lust and desire of the flesh at its most degenerate level; anguish and regret at its most bitter.



Notes on the translation: The original is exquisite, of course, so if you have a choice, read it in French. If not, I highly recommend Brian Nelson's translation, who must have been channelling Zola throughout the writing process, so harmonious is his work to the original. I read a digital copy in French and longed to have a paper copy, but could only find it in translation, which is how I came to read both versions.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am beginning to come to the conclusion that if more people read Zola, the world would be a better place.

[P.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Splendeur et misère des courtisans du Second Empire:


La Butte des Moulins lors du percement de l'Avenue de l'Opéra (1878) - Félix Buhot


Dans ce volet de la saga familiale des Rougon-Macquart, Renée est la divine épouse d'Aristide Rougon, alias Aristide Saccard. Elle est (avec le frère d'Aristide son Excellence Eugène Rougon) son suprême faire-valoir dans la bonne société, son atout stratégique, son avoir le plus solide dans les négociations et les malversations.
En effet, notre homme, né Rougon vit dans l'effervescence continuelle des projets de percées pour l'aménagement de grands boulevards dans la capitale. Une spéculation continuelle, une chasse perpétuelle à la subvention sur les terrains expropriés forment son principal horizon, et sa planche de salut.


On retrouve ici l'univers riche d'inépuisables possibilités grisantes ouvertes par les grands boulevards, la stabilité et le crédit du pouvoir, toute la mythologie de modernité qui parcourt Au Bonheur des dames. Or, cette fois, la toile de fond n'en est pas le phalanstère du négoce, ni même la simple lutte pour la vie, mais la rage des appétits excités par l'odeur de la curée encore fumante.




Démolition de la butte des Moulins (vers 1860 et 1870 respectivement)


Dans cet univers de dévorations colossales et d'accouplements mythologiques à force d'être licencieux, tout est toujours motif, prétexte, moyen de faire des affaires et d'exaspérer encore les appétits : emploi public, poste officiel, société fictive, titre de noblesse, dîners, coucheries,... Partant, tout le reste est pose, simulacre plus ou moins achevé en vue de fins à n'en pas douter excellentes puisque le Tout-Paris s'y adonne. Dans une société de courtisanerie, parmi la flagornerie universelle, ce sont les actrices les plus en vue que l'on fête.

Aussi bien La Curée est certainement, des romans de Zola que j'ai lus jusqu'à présent, celui où la personnalité individuelle des personnages s'efface le plus, strictement liée par les lois d'une hérédité déterministe. Au point où les personnes forment des ensembles, des plans, des aplats, des paysages, bien plus que des individus bien délimités... Et lorsque leur individualité paraît se détacher des autres, plus fortement marquée que celle de leur entourage, elle tombe encore en-deçà ou au-delà de l'individualité, elle reste encore circonscrite par les lois de l'intérêt et de la jouissance, qui la régissent comme une amibe informe, à l'exemple de Maxime Saccard, ou comme une mécanique ingénieuse et froide, une machine qui répond au nom métallique d'Aristide Saccard.

Et Renée dans tout ça ? Je vois en elle un être tiraillé, esclave de ses contradictions profondes. D'autant plus affranchie qu'elle cherche à supplanter les règles communément admises où son sexe est tenu ; d'autant plus assujettie à ces règles que tout son comportement se définit par rapport à elles. Dans sa quête frénétique, la jeune femme cherche ses limites sans jamais parvenir à se heurter à une véritable résistance, à un véritable interdit qui la conduirait sans défaut à son exclusion de la bonne société, et du même coup à son propre dépassement, à une faute qui lui restitue sa responsabilité, à une forme de mort et à une forme de renaissance où elle puisse dépasser sa condition de poupée mondaine, tantôt travestie en Phèdre, tantôt en Tahitienne, tantôt en Écho, au gré de modes sans conséquence.

La jeune femme poussera jusqu'à l'inceste, avant de découvrir que les plus redoutables profanations font encore figure d'aimables préjugés, de délassement théâtral un peu piquant, au pire de polissonneries qui ne portent pas à conséquence face aux intérêts supérieurs du profit et de la renommée dans cette société qui pourrissait.

Là où il y a de la gêne, il n'y a pas de plaisir.


Quelques citations majeures :

'Avec un tel mari, Renée était aussi peu mariée que possible. Elle restait des semaines entières sans presque le voir. D’ailleurs, il était parfait : il ouvrait pour elle sa caisse toute grande. Au fond, elle l’aimait comme un banquier obligeant. Quand elle allait à l’hôtel Béraud, elle faisait un grand éloge de lui devant son père, que la fortune de son gendre laissait sévère et froid. Son mépris s’en était allé ; cet homme semblait si convaincu que la vie n’est qu’une affaire, il était si évidemment né pour battre monnaie avec tout ce qui lui tombait sous les mains : femmes, enfants, pavés, sacs de plâtre, consciences, qu’elle ne pouvait lui reprocher le marché de leur mariage. Depuis ce marché, il la regardait un peu comme une de ces belles maisons qui lui faisaient honneur et dont il espérait tirer de gros profits. Il la voulait bien mise, bruyante, faisant tourner la tête à tout Paris. Cela le posait, doublait le chiffre probable de sa fortune. Il était beau, jeune, amoureux, écervelé, par sa femme. Elle était une associée, une complice sans le savoir. Un nouvel attelage, une toilette de deux mille écus, une complaisance pour quelque amant, facilitèrent, décidèrent souvent ses plus heureuses affaires. Souvent aussi il se prétendait accablé, l’envoyait chez un ministre, chez un fonctionnaire quelconque, pour solliciter une autorisation ou recevoir une réponse. Il lui disait : « Et sois sage ! » d’un ton qui n’appartenait qu’à lui, à la fois railleur et câlin. Et quand elle revenait, qu’elle avait réussi, il se frottait les mains, en répétant son fameux : « Et tu as été sage ! » Renée riait. Il était trop actif pour souhaiter une madame Michelin. Il aimait simplement les plaisanteries crues, les hypothèses scabreuses. D’ailleurs, si Renée « n’avait pas été sage, » il n’aurait éprouvé que le dépit d’avoir réellement payé la complaisance du ministre ou du fonctionnaire. Duper les gens, leur en donner moins que pour leur argent, était un régal. Il se disait souvent : « Si j’étais femme, je me vendrais peut-être, mais je ne livrerais jamais la marchandise ; c’est trop bête. » '



'Elle s’aperçut dans la haute glace de l’armoire. Elle s’approcha, étonnée de se voir, oubliant son mari, oubliant Maxime, toute préoccupée par l’étrange femme qu’elle avait devant elle. La folie montait. Ses cheveux jaunes, relevés sur les tempes et sur la nuque, lui parurent une nudité, une obscénité. La ride de son front se creusait si profondément, qu’elle mettait une barre sombre au-dessus des yeux, la meurtrissure mince et bleuâtre d’un coup de fouet. Qui donc l’avait marquée ainsi ? Son mari n’avait pas levé la main, pourtant. Et ses lèvres l’étonnaient par leur pâleur, ses yeux de myope lui semblaient morts. Comme elle était vieille ! Elle pencha le front, et, quand elle se vit dans son maillot, dans sa légère blouse de gaze, elle se contempla, les cils baissés, avec des rougeurs subites. Qui l’avait mise nue ? Que faisait-elle dans ce débraillé de fille qui se découvre jusqu’au ventre ? Elle ne savait plus. Elle regardait ses cuisses que le maillot arrondissait, ses hanches dont elle suivait les lignes souples sous la gaze, son buste largement ouvert ; et elle avait honte d’elle, et un mépris de sa chair l’emplissait de colère sourde contre ceux qui la laissaient ainsi, avec de simples cercles d’or aux chevilles et aux poignets pour lui cacher la peau.

Alors, cherchant, avec l’idée fixe d’une intelligence qui se noie, ce qu’elle faisait là, toute nue, devant cette glace, elle remonta d’un saut brusque à son enfance, elle se revit à sept ans, dans l’ombre grave de l’hôtel Béraud. Elle se souvint d’un jour où la tante Élisabeth les avait habillées, elle et Christine, de robes de laine grise à petits carreaux rouges. On était à la Noël. Comme elles étaient contentes de ces deux robes semblables ! La tante les gâtait, et elle poussa les choses jusqu’à leur donner à chacune un bracelet et un collier de corail. Les manches étaient longues, le corsage montait jusqu’au menton, les bijoux s’étalaient sur l’étoffe, ce qui leur semblait bien joli. Renée se rappelait encore que son père était là, qu’il souriait de son air triste. Ce jour-là, sa sœur et elle, dans la chambre des enfants, s’étaient promenées comme de grandes personnes, sans jouer, pour ne pas se salir. Puis, chez les dames de la Visitation, ses camarades l’avaient plaisantée sur « sa robe de Pierrot, » qui lui allait au bout des doigts et qui lui montait par-dessus les oreilles. Elle s’était mise à pleurer pendant la classe. À la récréation, pour qu’on ne se moquât plus d’elle, elle avait retroussé les manches et rentré le tour de cou du corsage. Et le collier et le bracelet de corail lui semblaient plus jolis sur la peau de son cou et de son bras. Était-ce ce jour-là qu’elle avait commencé à se mettre nue ?

Sa vie se déroulait devant elle. Elle assistait à son long effarement, à ce tapage de l’or et de la chair qui était monté en elle, dont elle avait eu jusqu’aux genoux, jusqu’au ventre, puis jusqu’aux lèvres, et dont elle sentait maintenant le flot passer sur sa tête, en lui battant le crâne à coups pressés. C’était comme une sève mauvaise ; elle lui avait lassé les membres, mis au cœur des excroissances de honteuses tendresses, fait pousser au cerveau des caprices de malade et de bête. Cette sève, la plante de ses pieds l’avait prise sur le tapis de sa calèche, sur d’autres tapis encore, sur toute cette soie et tout ce velours, où elle marchait depuis son mariage. Les pas des autres devaient avoir laissé là ces germes de poison, éclos à cette heure dans son sang, et que ses veines charriaient. Elle se rappelait bien son enfance. Lorsqu’elle était petite, elle n’avait que des curiosités. Même plus tard, après ce viol qui l’avait jetée au mal, elle ne voulait pas tant de honte. Certes, elle serait devenue meilleure, si elle était restée à tricoter auprès de la tante Élisabeth. Et elle entendait le tic-tac régulier des aiguilles de la tante, tandis qu’elle regardait fixement dans la glace pour lire cet avenir de paix qui lui avait échappé. Mais elle ne voyait que ses cuisses roses, ses hanches roses, cette étrange femme de soie rose qu’elle avait devant elle, et dont la peau de fine étoffe, aux mailles serrées, semblait faite pour des amours de pantins et de poupées. Elle en était arrivée à cela, à être une grande poupée dont la poitrine déchirée ne laisse échapper qu’un filet de son. Alors, devant les énormités de sa vie, le sang de son père, ce sang bourgeois qui la tourmentait aux heures de crise, cria en elle, se révolta. Elle qui avait toujours tremblé à la pensée de l’enfer, elle aurait dû vivre au fond de la sévérité noire de l’hôtel Béraud. Qui donc l’avait mise nue ?

Et, dans l’ombre bleuâtre de la glace, elle crut voir se lever les figures de Saccard et de Maxime. Saccard, noirâtre, ricanant, avait une couleur de fer, un rire de tenaille, sur ses jambes grêles. Cet homme était une volonté. Depuis dix ans, elle le voyait dans la forge, dans les éclats du métal rougi, la chair brûlée, haletant, tapant toujours, soulevant des marteaux vingt fois trop lourds pour ses bras, au risque de s’écraser lui-même. Elle le comprenait maintenant ; il lui apparaissait grandi par cet effort surhumain, par cette coquinerie énorme, cette idée fixe d’une immense fortune immédiate. Elle se le rappelait sautant les obstacles, roulant en pleine boue, et ne prenant pas le temps de s’essuyer pour arriver avant l’heure, ne s’arrêtant même pas à jouir en chemin, mâchant ses pièces d’or en courant. Puis la tête blonde et jolie de Maxime apparaissait derrière l’épaule rude de son père : il avait son clair sourire de fille, ses yeux vides de catin qui ne se baissaient jamais, sa raie au milieu du front, montrant la blancheur du crâne. Il se moquait de Saccard, il le trouvait bourgeois de se donner tant de peine pour gagner un argent qu’il mangeait, lui, avec une si adorable paresse. Il était entretenu. Ses mains longues et molles contaient ses vices. Son corps épilé avait une pose lassée de femme assouvie. Dans tout cet être lâche et mou, où le vice coulait avec la douceur d’une eau tiède, ne luisait pas seulement l’éclair de la curiosité du mal. Il subissait. Et Renée, en regardant les deux apparitions sortir des ombres légères de la glace, recula d’un pas, vit que Saccard l’avait jetée comme un enjeu, comme une mise de fonds, et que Maxime s’était trouvé là, pour ramasser ce louis tombé de la poche du spéculateur. Elle restait une valeur dans le portefeuille de son mari ; il la poussait aux toilettes d’une nuit, aux amants d’une saison ; il la tordait dans les flammes de sa forge, se servant d’elle, ainsi que d’un métal précieux, pour dorer le fer de ses mains. Peu à peu, le père l’avait ainsi rendue assez folle, assez misérable, pour les baisers du fils. Si Maxime était le sang appauvri de Saccard, elle se sentait, elle, le produit, le fruit véreux de ces deux hommes, l’infamie qu’ils avaient creusée entre eux, et dans laquelle ils roulaient l’un et l’autre.

Elle savait maintenant. C’étaient ces gens qui l’avaient mise nue. Saccard avait dégrafé le corsage, et Maxime avait fait tomber la jupe. Puis, à eux deux, ils venaient d’arracher la chemise. À présent, elle se trouvait sans un lambeau, avec des cercles d’or, comme une esclave. Ils la regardaient tout à l’heure, ils ne lui disaient pas : « Tu es nue. » Le fils tremblait comme un lâche, frissonnait à la pensée d’aller jusqu’au bout de son crime, refusait de la suivre dans sa passion. Le père, au lieu de la tuer, l’avait volée ; cet homme punissait les gens en vidant leurs poches ; une signature tombait comme un rayon de soleil au milieu de la brutalité de sa colère, et pour vengeance, il emportait la signature. Puis elle avait vu leurs épaules qui s’enfonçaient dans les ténèbres. Pas de sang sur le tapis, pas un cri, pas une plainte. C’étaient des lâches. Ils l’avaient mise nue.'

-------

Mais encore :


Spéculation et amour malheureux :
The Great Gatsby

Aliénation :
Une vie
Madame Bovary


Coups de dent féroces contre la société française post-révolutionnaire, en particulier du Second Empire et de la Troisième République :

1. Témoignage des passions nationales de 1841 à 1848 :
L'Éducation sentimentale

2. Estocades terribles contre le mercantilisme, la marchandisation de la vie sous le second XIXe siècle :
Contes cruels

3. Recours aux femmes de grands personnages, aux bruits et à la primeur d'informations confidentielles pour monter (comparer au Crédit viticole et à la Société des Ports du Maroc de La Curée) :
Bel-Ami

4. Anathème intégral de la société bourgeoise, et en particulier de ses chrétiens :
Le Désespéré


Poésie de la démolition :
Rigodon

Fantasmagories inquiétantes :
Les Diaboliques
Mephisto
The Picture of Dorian Gray

Famille et spéculation foncière:
There Will Be Blood
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_W...


Mot de François Furet sur la poursuite des intérêts et la satisfaction des appétits individuels:

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Piste suggérée :
La mauvaise réputation - Georges Brassens

[Zahra · Rating 3 out of 5]

سهم سگان شکاری، دومین کتاب از مجموعه بیست کتابی روگن ماکاره و گرچه با بهترین کتاب های زولا فاصله زیادی داره اما خوندنش خالی از لطف نیست. داستان این کتاب در ادامه کتاب اوله و داستان شاخه روگن در پاریس رو در زمان امپراطوری ناپلئون سوم روایت میکنه. دوران امپراطوری ناپلئون سوم همزمان با پیشرفت چشمگیر فرانسه از جمله توسعه خط آهن بود که علاوه بر پیشرفت، باعث فساد گسترده و به قدرت رسیدن افراد تازه به دوران رسیده از جمله خاندان روگن بوده و این کتاب درست مثل کتاب قبلی، آینه تمام نمای تحولات فرانسه در این دورانه

[Gary Inbinder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a dark, disturbing yet highly engaging read. It's also an example of Zola at his best: prose that's strong and compelling, yet poetic and atmospheric; psychologically complex characters; minute detailed description that makes the time and place come alive; plotting and pacing that grips you from from the beginning and doesn't let go. There is also Zola's trademark social critique and a large dose of sensationalism.

The title La Curee (The Kill) refers to the offal that is thrown to the dogs following the traditional French hunt. The "kill" in this story mostly involves land speculation but it may also refer to the "kill" or spoils of a greater part of society and the culture of the period.

The novel is set during the Second Empire (1852-1870) and focusses on the evisceration and modernization of Paris under Napoleon III and his Prefect, Baron Hausmann. The principle characters are Aristide Saccard (Rougon) an unscrupulous speculator in real estate; Maxime, Aristide's foppish son by his first wife; and Aristide's second wife, Renee.

Three of the Seven Deadly Sins, Greed, Lust and Gluttony, constitute Zola's main theme. Businessmen, politicians and bureaucrats benefit from the renovation and construction projects by conspiring to defraud the government and the public. Women play their roles in the conspiracy, and sell themselves to the highest bidder. Everything is for sale, and conspicuous consumption is on display in lavish mansions, fashions, jewelry, carriages, courtesans, banquets and balls.

In addition to the shady dealings of Aristide and others, Zola explores an incestuous relationship between Renee and her stepson Maxime that draws upon Classical literature, most particularly Racine's Phaedra. The play is referenced several times in the text; at one point Renee and Maxime actually attend a performance. Moreover, at several points in the narrative Zola appears to foreshadow Racine's tragic ending. However, this is not a "spoiler." Zola doesn't give us the ending that readers familiar with the story of Phaedra, Hippolytus and Theseus might anticipate. Without revealing anything, I'll just say that Zola's conclusion is wryly ironic and chilling.

[path · Rating 5 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this 2nd book in Zola’s Les Rougon-Macquart series. This installment follows a period in the life of Aristide Rougon (later Aristide Saccard) as he moves to Paris during the age of the Second Empire (1852-1870). This story occurs after the events of the first novel in which members of the Rougon family exploit intelligence from connections that lead them to back the winning side in the 1851 French coup d’état. Aristide moves to Paris and uses a low level office position to learn about city development plans as Paris is remade under Napoleon III. He buys up properties in the path of destruction, inflates the value of the buildings, and then commands a profit over his investment when the city buys back the property rights.

The story focuses on Aristide’s second wife, the young Renée, whose social standing he “rescues” via marriage after her social standing was damaged by a rape that she endured. Of course, the marriage is not for love or beneficence but for financial leverage from the dowry and property Renée owns.

Renée and Maxime (Aristide’s son from his first marriage) lead lives of opulence and wealth that Zola describes in great detail, to highlight its magnificence and excess. But Renée and Maxime are unhappy. They have money, given as allowances, to meet their needs but they still experience unfulfilled desire for something beyond the boredom of excess. Renée and Maxime find it in an illicit love affair. They become consumed by their desire, ratcheting forward to new pleasures and risks and deceptions day by day, eventually losing much of their sense of dignity. Their behavior is paralleled by Aristide’s increasingly risky and exploitative real estate ventures. All of their lives threaten to fall apart while pursuing their desires on the knife’s edge.

Chapter VI brings so many of the themes into focus and is a highlight of the book. The centerpiece is the tableau theatrical staging of Narcissus and Echo that includes many of the novel’s characters, mostly wives and lovers and children of the property speculators. Maxime plays the role of Narcissus and Renée plays Echo. In addition to the topical similarity with the novel and the foreshadowing that it provides, the best part is the scene that immediately follows the tableau. In that scene, a spread of drinks and cold cuts are laid out at buffet tables (mirroring the theatrical tableau). When guests are let into the room, the food tables are mobbed by the guests and the food and drink is hastily devoured with guests elbowing for position. It’s a disturbing scene reminiscent of a pack of animals feeding on prey. As I see it, the scene reflects back on the tableau, a spread of actors whose love, attention, dignity, and senses of self are devoured by their desires, by their lifestyles, by all the people who use them to get ahead. This theme of devouring and the way it mixes violence and desire and animal satisfaction shows up in other Zola books, and I find it disturbing and arresting each time.

Les Rougon-Macquart continues to be an engaging, gritty, realistic novel series. I read a few books out of order at first, but now I’m trying to go in the order that the book were written. Ostensibly, the books are chronicling the fates of two families: the Rougons who are “well born” and wealthy and the Macquarts who are “lower born” and whose members are subject to vices. The series asks how much of a person’s character derives from their family and their inherited nature and how much comes from the environment. As far as I have seen, Zola seems to argue that being “well born” does not assure the Rougons of any virtuous or ethical standing any more than the diminished means and vices of the Macquarts deny their descendants the ability to be dignified and upstanding. The Rougons that I have met have demonstrated that it easy is to bend the law to behave selfishly and exploitatively within one’s rights in a capitalist system. Likewise the Macquarts have demonstrated that it is possible to have dignity but difficult to keep it in a system that grinds them to pulp.

[sAmAnE · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب در مورد زندگی سه فرد به نام‌های آریستید، رنه و ماکسیم است.
رنه بعد از یک عشق نافرجام و سقط فرزندش به ناچار همسر آریستید می‌شود و ماکسیم که پسر آریستید است هم از شخصیت‌های دیگر داستان است.

داستان به سمت توصیف زندگی حیرت‌انگیز جنون و بی‌بند و باری این سه تن در خانه پرداخته و به نوعی خواسته تاثیر فساد و معضلات اخلاقی را در دوره‌ی جوانی به نمایش بگذارد... خوش زیستن، حس آزادی و استقلال کامل که منجر به تقسیم سودی مساوی بین این سه نفر شده... تا جایی‌که کامجویی‌ها و لذت‌های خود را به رخ یکدیگر می‌کشیدند.

سهم سگان شکاری با نام اصلی ذِبح، رمانی است از نویسنده و روزنامه‌نگار فرانسوی، امیل زولا، که در سال ۱۸۷۲ در فرانسه منتشر شد و تلاش بدر به تصویر کشیدن زوال و فساد زمان امپراتوری دوم فرانسه را دارد.

[E. G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Introduction
Translator's Note
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of Émile Zola
Map: The Paris of 'The Kill'

--The Kill

Explanatory Notes

[Dagio_maya · Rating 5 out of 5]

”... devant lui, que la grande chasse impériale, la chasse aux aventures, aux femmes, aux millions, commençait enfin. "


Terzo libro (non per data di pubblicazione ma nell’ordine suggerito dall’autore) del ciclo naturalista dei Rougon- Maquart.
Protagonista è Aristide Rougon che avevamo lasciato alla fine de La fortuna dei Rougon dove da giornalista repubblicano si era trasformato, al momento opportuno, in bonapartista assistendo impassibile all’uccisione del giovane cugino Silvère da parte di un soldato.

Aristide si trasferisce a Parigi per poter realizzare il sogno: diventare ricco!
Per prima cosa cambia nome per non compromettere il fratello Eugène già affermato politico imperiale: d’ora in poi si chiamerà Saccard.
Morta la moglie Angèle, ed aiutato dalla sorella Sidonie, si risposa con la giovanissima Renèe la cui dote gli permette di iniziare la sua scalata.
Questi i presupposti di un racconto che intreccia intrighi di denaro e di erotismo.

Zola denuncia in questo romanzo le speculazioni edilizie che realmente trasformarono Parigi dal 1850 per mano del barone Haussmann.
Il compito del naturalista di essere aderente al reale Zola lo assolve con una minuzia che si insinua nei meandri della psiche di ogni personaggio.
Aristide che si relaziona agli altri solo con movimenti calcolati a raggiungere i suoi obiettivi.
La divine Renèe la cui essenza sta nella finezza dei pizzi e le sete con cui si (s)veste.
Maxime (figlio di primo letto di Saccard) presenza androgina la cui ambiguità rispecchia sia l’aspetto dissoluto sia l’ipocrisia dominante.
Poi la sorella Sidonie; figura che, rasente ai muri con cui si mimetizza, entra ed esce non vista dai palazzi e riassume i vizi dei Rougon (denaro ed intrigo) dando vita ad un nuovo ibrido.

Zola apre ogni porta; s’infiltra nelle condutture dei palazzi, ne attraversa i muri, ne scova gli angoli inquadrando ogni cosa.
Impossibile non sentirsi coinvolti da questi ambienti: vedere le camere sfatte dopo l’amore; sentire l’aria umida della stanza da bagno che racchiude tutti gli effluvi dell’eros perverso che è passato di lì.
Come una mosca si svolazza poi negli uffici dai mobili spessi di legno pregiato dove non si vede un libro (con la cultura non si fanno soldi!) ma in compenso troneggia una incastrata nel muro una cassaforte ”... comme une alcôve de fer, grande à y coucher les amours d’un milliard.” (“...simile a un’alcova di ferro, tanto grande da contenere gli amori che avrebbero potuto essere comprati da un miliardo di franchi. “).

Ogni pagina si muove in un cammino frenetico di questa perversa Parigi.

"Cependant la fortune des Saccard semblait à son apogée. Elle brûlait en plein Paris comme un feu de joie colossal. C’était l’heure où la curée ardente emplit un coin de forêt de l’aboiement des chiens, du claquement des fouets, du flamboiement des torches"

------------------------------------------
Qualche annotazione sul titolo e le sue versioni in italiano.
La prima versione italiana fu pubblicata nel 1880 con il titolo” La caccia ai milioni.”
L'anno successivo uscì un’altra traduzione con il titolo “La cuccagna” per i F.lli Treves.
L’ultima versione è del 2018 e il titolo è diventato “La preda”
Queste differenze si spiegano con Il significato ambivalente del titolo originale “La curée” che, infatti, può significare:
1) “corsa” in senso figurato; ad esempio “corsa all’oro”
2) oppure, riferito alla caccia è il termine che designa la parte di selvaggina (e quindi di preda) che viene lasciata ai segugi come ricompensa

[Sergio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nello scenario di una Parigi messa sottosopra dal grandioso piano edilizio deciso nel secondo impero per dare lustro alla capitale e renderla più moderna e sontuosa, si aggirano i protagonisti di questo terzo episodio della saga dei Rougon-Macquart: e se nel precedente romanzo Eugene Rougon la faceva da padrone come protagonista assoluto, qui lavora dietro le quinte lasciando all’avanguardia suo fratello Aristide che cambia il nome in Saccard e, dopo uno spregiudicato matrimonio d’interesse con la giovane “violata” Renée, si lancia a capofitto in grosse speculazioni finanziarie che lo rendono ricchissimo, vero avvoltoio della finanza parigina. Naturalmente il romanzo non è esclusivo degli intrallazzi di Saccard ma svela i retroscena di condotte scandalose, gli intrighi e i maneggi di una società all’apparenza perbenista ma in cui il marciume morale, le condotte perverse e dissolute non possono essere giustificate dalla ricchezza e dalla modernità. “La Preda” pubblicato nel 1871 è il romanzo di Zola che finora mi ha maggiormente intrigato e appassionato, grazie anche alla indimenticabile figura femminile di Renée ben disegnata e scrupolosamente esplicitata nel rovello della sua mente inquieta e dissoluta, nel suo operato e nei suoi intrighi.

[Helga چـو ایـران نباشد تن من مـباد · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paris sat down to dinner and dreamed bawdy dreams for dessert.

La Curée is the second novel in the twenty-volume series of Les Rougon-Macquart featuring the greedy, calculating nouveau riche Aristide Rougon, the youngest son of ruthless, money grabbing Bonapartists, Pierre and Felicite Rougon of the first novel.

Thou shalt be rich!

The setting of the novel is Paris, a city bent on pleasure, immorality and adventure, where rogues rule, devious deals are made , consciences are sold and women are bought. In a word, Paris is drunk!

"What is it you want? What on earth do you dream of?..."
..."I want something different..."

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I had to sum up The Kill in one clause (and this clause is coming up now so get ready) I’d say it’s about Haussmannisation and incest. Baron Haussmann transformed Paris during the Second Empire—a period of absolutely fantastic debauchery—where francs flowed in the streets and enterprising capitalists were free to make a monetary killing. So we have Saccard, a heartless but forgiving cash-seeker interested in power and lucre, who marries into wealth to prevent a scandal. He marries Renée, a carefree sensualist taken with Saccard’s effeminate son Maxime, a rotter who pleasures himself beneath the skirts of society ladies. This novel is the most exhausting Zola so far (except Germinal—don’t get me started), stuffed with long spooling descriptions of the old buildings, some exquisite, some supersize. A few chapters in the semi-incestuous romance becomes the dominant plot, and Zola’s remarkable depiction of Renée’s descent into debauched behaviour is intoxicating and thrilling. Unlike most characters of this ilk, she doesn’t collapse spread-eagled at the altar of Jesus and repent her frolics to all passing monks. She retains her pearly wonder after her husband’s fleeced her fortune and she’s doomed to a wintry cabin with nothing but the thoughts of romping in the hothouse with her stepson. I loved Renée. Anyway. Great novel.

[Alice Poon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read "The Kill" ("La Curee") about three years ago and liked it so much as to have written a long review of it in my Asia Sentinel (an online magazine) blog. I’ve dug out that review and have shortened it a bit for sharing here at Goodreads.

"The Kill" ("La Curee") is the second in Emile Zola’s twenty-volume Rougon-Macquart saga, which is a fictional historical account of a family under France’s Second Empire, a semi-despotic, semi-parliamentary kleptocracy of Louis Bonaparte Napoleon III. This novel aroused my interest in the author Emile Zola, whom, after deeper research into his life and works, I’ve come to like and respect.

As suggested by the title of the novel, the hunting spoils (the French term is “la curee”) are rewards for the hounds for killing the quarry. In allegorical interpretation, spoils of economic development are rewards for those callous enough to prey on the weak and vulnerable. This is the main theme of the novel.

The story of "The Kill" is set in Paris during the reign of the Second Empire, a city that was undergoing dramatic transformations highlighted by greed, graft and conspicuous consumption. The background setting features massive public works which include demolition of broad swaths of old Paris for the construction of spacious boulevards and widespread expansion of railroads. The social backdrop tells of how the middle-class rushes to embrace new-found gold-digging opportunities and how the government wades knee-deep in corruption and cronyism.

“From the very first days Aristide Saccard sensed the approach of this rising tide of speculation, whose spume would one day cover all of Paris. He followed its progress closely. He found himself smack in the middle of the torrential downpour of gold raining down on the city’s roofs. In his incessant turns around city hall, he had caught wind of the vast project to transform Paris, of the plans for demolition, of the new streets and hastily planned neighborhoods, and of the massive wheeling and dealing in land and buildings that had ignited a clash of interests across the capital and set off an unbridled pursuit of luxury.....”

Against this background, the main story line centers on Aristide Saccard’s rapacious graft at the government office and his coldhearted exploitation of his beautiful but soulless wife Renee, and simultaneously threads through a materially decadent and morally depraved period of her life, which culminates in her engagement in incest with her step-son Maxime. The story ends with an abrupt and cruel shattering of Renee’s self-indulgent delusions, her heartbreak caused by the discovery of her husband’s and Maxime’s egregious treachery. Her tragic end has a dark symbolic ring to it - she becomes part of the hunting spoils.

[Janelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed the second book in Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series.
It follows Aristide Rougon who moves to Paris in 1852 to make his fortune. He changes his name to Saccard, and he’s a greedy, unscrupulous and devious man and apparently his name is till used in France as a byword for corporate or plutocratic figures driven by lust and money! Paris is undergoing great change and real estate is where deals are being made. After the death of his first wife, Saccard marries the young Renee (pregnant after bing raped needs to be married quick) to get her dowry so he can invest.
The novels opening chapter is set in the 1860s and shows the full blown decadence and debauchery of the nouveau riche, lots of gossip and affairs and corruption. Zola describes it all lavishly and it’s extremely hard to like any of these nasty people. The most enjoyable character is Sidonie, Aristide’s sister. She is also devious but she enjoys the collection of gossip and favours, she deals in the coverups and solves problems quietly.
The other strand of the story involves Maxime, Aristides son who is sent to the country after his mother’s death but returns to Paris when he is 13. He flirts outrageously with his young stepmother from the start and eventually they become lovers.
At the end of the novel Renee appears disillusioned with her lifestyle and all the decadence around her but her husband still is ripping off friends and family to make even more money. Lust for money and lust for pleasure are the overwhelming motivations of the books characters. There’s a complete lack of morality and even any decency. Aristide doesn’t even stay angry when he discovers the young lovers as realises Renee has signed over her property!
A great read and I'm looking forward to the next in the series!

[AiK · Rating 5 out of 5]

В «Карьере Ругонов» Золя предупредил, что целью его анализа является наследственность. Если мы видели основательницу рода Аделаиду порочной и любвеобильной, Пьера и Фелисите корыстными, беспринципными и жестокими, то Аристид Саккар унаследовал эти черты в более гипертрофированном виде, его сын от первого брака Максим еще более развратен, лишен каких-либо моральных устоев, жаден до денег и эгоистичен. Вместе с тем, нельзя сказать, что Рене сильно уж отличается от них. Все они дети одного времени и одного социального слоя. Золя великолепно раскрыл их психологические портреты. Но Рене, хоть и в пороке, любила, и за это ее становится даже жаль. А Аристид, и Максим не любили, просто похоть. Золя раскрывает всю коррумпированность и все схемы хищений из городского бюджета в 19 веке, и, надо сказать, что способы махинаций не сильно изменились, и наши постсоветские градоначальники очень сильно напоминают городских чиновников Парижа конца 19 века. Не знаю, как с этим сейчас в Париже, но у нас процветают деятели, даже в еще более короткие сроки, чем Аристид, сколачивающие состояния на городских реконструкциях, дорогах, бордюрах и прочем, с наглыми схемами хищений на виду у всего города.

[Hamidreza_tr · Rating 4 out of 5]

رمانی در باب فساد در قدرت و اشرافیت.
( فعلا ذهنم درگیر موضوعی دیگر است و تمرکزی برای ریویو نویسی نیست ! )

[Chrissie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I do not enjoy reading this book. I have read half and am now dumping it. My rating is one star. This does not mean the book has no value: it means simply that I dislike it. I am sure my opinion of it would not change if I were to continue.

Zola writes here of the extremely wealthy, the nouveau riche Parisians of the Second French Empire (1852-1870). It is about their lust for pleasure and money. In its depiction of extreme opulence, greed and dissolute behavior it is in effect a criticism of the era. Despite this message, reading about these people does not bring me pleasure. Zola’s sharp, unrelenting criticism has made the characters two-dimensional. They are caricatures for whom we are not supposed to feel empathy.

Zola’s writing is descriptive, very descriptive. He details every aspect of the lives of the nouveau riche —their clothes and manners, how their mansions are constructed and built as well as their floor plans, hot houses and the specific plants growing and clambering up the walls within, vehicles, food consumed, banquet menus, etc. The list could be made very long. Zola belongs to the school of realism. He achieves this through a meticulous documentation of accurate details, based on extensive research. There are pages and pages of details, fine for those doing research but boring for me.

The book exists in several English translations. They have different English titles. The version I have read, entitled The Kill, is translated by Alexander Texeira de Mattos. Although it is a complete, uncensored version, modern readers, me included, may find the language dated, old-fashioned. The lines do not flow smoothly. There are newer translations by Arthur Goldhammer and Brian Nelson.

Cate Barratt narrates the audiobook. The words spoken are clear, but the pacing is off. She rarely modulates her tone or pitch. Her reading drones on and on. She stops and clears her throat! The narration performance is not of a professional calibre. I have given the audiobook performance one star, quite simply because I don’t like it.

For all of the above stated reasons, I have decided to quit this book. Some of Zola’s books are excellent. I would recommend both Germinal and The Masterpiece (L’Oeuvre). The books in Les Rougon-Macquart Series need not be read in any particular order. Each stands on its own. My advice? Read the best; skip the rest.

**************
Family Tree:
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Rou...

*******************************

*Thérèse Raquin 4 stars

Les Rougon-Macquart Books:
*(#13)Germinal 4 stars
*(#14)The Masterpiece (L’Oeuvre) 4 stars
*(#12)The Bright Side of Life (La Joie de vivre) 3 stars
*(#17)The Beast in Man (La Bête Humaine) 3 stars
*(#7)The Drinking Den (L'Assommoir) 3 stars
*(#9)Nana 1 star
*(#2)The Kill (La Curée) 1 star

*(#18)Money (L’Argent) maybe
*(#11)The Ladies' Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames) maybe
*(#3)The Belly of Paris (Le Ventre de Paris) maybe
*(#1)The Fortune of the Rougons (La Fortune des Rougon) maybe

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sun is a powerful thing. It can brighten our day, warm our bodies and fill us with a feeling of goodness. It can act as a metaphor. All that glitters is like gold. And like the sun, it can fade away.

The book begins with a horse drawn carriages gliding through the late autumn light glistening through the forest of Paris. It’s a mesmerizing scene. Evocative and beautiful. By the end of the chapter, all that beauty fades to black.

And that leads us to the title:

“C'était l'heure où la curée ardente emplit un coin de forêt de l'aboiement des chiens, du claquement des fouets, du flamboiement des torches.”

It was the hour where the hot kill filled in the corner of the forest from the barking of the hunt dogs, the clacking of the whips, the flames of the torches.

The kill? That is the English title. Very dark. And that is the heart of the book (I will get back to the sun metaphor).

Saccard is a fortune seeker. He is obsessed about money that he made from his various schemes. How did he get rich? His rich and powerful brother Eugène Rougon got him a job in the government land titles. At the time Paris was being redeveloped and Saccard first got wind of what was to be torn down. Welcome to land speculation. He even changed his name to cover his connections to his brother. Honest? Not as long as no one finds out. I won’t tell if you don’t.

Besides this is the time of Napoleon III, a time when Paris was changing. For the better. Or at least for those bourgeois folks who planned on making it big. Vive l’empereur!

He loved money more than his young wife. In fact that was a scheme. After his first wife died (all too common back then) he married Renée. She was twenty-one. She also had a small fortune. Money buys happiness. At least for Saccard.

His son Máxime came to live with father and step-mom. The problem was the age gap between wife and husband - too many years; and much closer to son and step-mom. One thing leads to another and the two begin an incestuous relationship while Saccard, the husband-father tries to swindle the estate out from under his cheating wife’s eyes. Who is cheating who?

And the best deal of all is to marry of his son to a sickly young woman with the dowry of the century. The fathers were so delighted. Even Maxine had a hard time to resist the lure of all that money. The only problem was broken hearted, no scratch that, let’s go mad Renée.

Symbolism. Ever see the movie Fatal Attraction? I can never get Madame Butterfly out of my head (always loved that opera). The movie is based on the Puccini opera, but I will bet, Puccini must have known about this Zola book.

Here is the sun metaphor. Renée shines in her beautiful gowns, her hair, her looks but when one crosses the line, falls in love with forbidden fruit, and in this case, tries to dance around the schemes of her husband, you just know she is going to have her flame extinguished.

Renée and Máxime, in their heady love, see the opera Phèdre. A really bad move because it’s the Greek myth of a step mother’s love for her step son Hippolytus. Did she get the gist of this? Nope.

Add in the myth in a play of Narcissus and Echo. Another bad ending. It is very ironic how the rich financiers are swooning over all the silver and gold being used in the sets. Yep, so narcissistic those men, Máxime included. Symbolism is lost on these pompous men. But the terrible outcome of Echo is not lost on Renée. Cue Madame Butterfly.

I cannot lie. I was swept away with this Zola book. Yes, I know, everyone seems rather seedy and playing off each other. I didn’t even mention Saccard’s creepy sister who has a hand or two in the fire. Perhaps it was too much like a soap opera, a French opera, a Greek myth or two, not to mention a money hungry man that reminds me of the man not to be named living south of the border, that just captivated me.

Full five stars.

PS. This Zola guy is pretty damn good. He he.

[Loulou11 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impossible pour moi d’émettre un avis construit, tout se bouscule dans ma tête. Quel merveilleux roman! Une des plus belles lectures de ma vie pour l’instant. J’attends d’être à froid pour comprendre ce qui vient de me tomber sur la tête…

[Nikola Jankovic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drugi u seriji od 20 (!) romana o porodicama Rugon - Makar. Prethodna, Uspon Rugonovih, započinje priču s početka Drugog francuskog carstva, u nedeljama dolaska Napoleon III na vlast na prilično krvav način (ali, da li su se Francuzi ikada ustezali toga?)

Nakon južne francuske provincije, selimo se u Pariz. Kaljuga je kritika visokog gradskog društva, uz detaljne opise političkih mahinacija prilikom velikih gradskih projekata. Da zamenimo "Pariz" sa "Beograd na vodi", čovek bi pomislio da za 150 godina nismo postali ništa kreativniji.

Ima i ovde interesantnih likova, ali... Ne znam, možda je krivo što sam skoro čitao Anu Karenjinu. Odličan je Zola pisac, razumem i sarkazam, ali su mu likovi ponekad poput karikatura, motivacija im je jednosmerna, a potezi predvidivi.

Ponekad preteruje i sa deskriptivnim opisima. 4 strane opisa gospođine sobe, sa detaljnim opisima nameštaja, hodnika i kamina?

Svejedno, serija je jedinstvena, svakako nastavljam. Samo da nađem negde taj Trbuh Pariza.

[Leslivresdudesir · Rating 5 out of 5]

6/5 *
Un grand cru . Luxe et volupté..or et spéculation .. des descriptions inégalables...
Un tome avec une atmosphère bien à lui qui est très différent de La Fortune des Rougon(tome 1) mais qui est tout aussi goûteux !
Je pense me régaler avec le tome 3 le Ventre de Paris ( à suivre).

[Zara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only reason why I’ve knocked off a star is that it needed to longer imo. Excellent book though.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Kill" is the second novel in Émile Zola's twenty volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. It's been quite a while since I read any books by Zola and reading him again made me want to read the entire series in order so I went and checked how many of them I have and it's not nearly enough to read all twenty, especially in order. I guess I'll just have to start looking more for Zola when I'm in bookstores. Or I suppose I could buy them on the internet or perhaps even someday break down and let someone get me an e-reader. In that case though, if I liked the book I'd have to find it and buy it anyway just to have a printed copy of it. Anyway, back to Zola and his book.

The book opens with two of our main characters, Renée and Maxime riding, or I guess I should say sitting, in a luxurious horse drawn carriage, very slowly, extremely slowly, leaving a park in Paris that apparently everyone in Paris must also be leaving because they are in the middle of a traffic jam, or at least the 19th century-equivalent of a traffic jam. It seems like they and everyone else are used to this, as if they all come here quite often, and ride through the park quite often, and just sit there barely moving quite often, and I have no idea why people would willingly do this, but they do, all of them. Before you get the idea that Renée and Maxime are husband and wife, they aren't, Renée is married to Maxime's father Aristide and Maxime is his son from his first marriage. Renée is almost thirty, Maxime is twenty. Renée is telling Maxime how bored she is, when Maxime tells her she couldn't possibly be bored, everywhere she goes she is worshiped and adored, men fall at her feet, she has carriages, she has anything she wants, she still insists that she is bored.

'You know, you deserve to ride in a cab! It would serve you right! Look at these people going back to Paris, they're all at your feet. They greet you as if you were their queen, and your dear friend, Monsieur de Mussy, can hardly prevent himself from blowing kisses at you.'
A horseman was in fact greeting Renée. Maxime had been talking in a hypocritical, mocking voice. But Renée barely turned round, and shrugged. This time Maxime made a gesture of despair.
'Really,' he said, 'has it come to this? Good God, you've got everything: what more do you want?'
Renée looked up. Her eyes glowed with the desire of unsatisfied curiosity.
'I want something different,l she replied softly.
'But since you have everything,' resumed Maxime, laughing, 'there is nothing different. What does "something different" mean?'

Renée doesn't know. Soon after this, once they get out of the traffic jam that is, they arrive back at the mansion and Renée spends quite some time - more than it would have taken me - getting ready for a dinner party they are having that evening. Oh, before I forget, before Renée and Maxime part to get ready for the party this happens, followed by her giving us a rather odd and creepy hint of what may be coming:

"A thousand tremulous emotions passed over her body: unrealized dreams, nameless delights, confused longings, all the monstrous voluptuousness that a drive home from the Bois under a paling sky can infuse into a woman's heart. She kept both hands buried in the bearskin, she was quite warm in her white cloth coat with the mauve velvet lapels. She put out her foot, stretching, and her ankle lightly touched Maxime's warm leg; he took no notice. A jolt aroused her from her torpor. She raised her head, and her grey eyes looked curiously at the young man who sat lounging in an attitude of sheer elegance.........

'If I hadn't married your father, I'm sure you would have wanted to court me.'
The young man seemed to find the idea very funny, for he was still laughing when he turned the corner of the Boulevard Malesherbes."

After this I was pondering Renée's boredom. As they arrive home the mansion is described like this:

"The hall was very luxurious. There was a slight sense of suffocation on entering. The thick carpets that covered the floor and the stairs, and the wide red velvet hangings that concealed the walls and the doors, gave the hall the heavy silence and the slightly warm fragrant atmosphere of a chapel. Draperies hung high, and the ceiling was decorated with roses set on a lattice of golden beading. The staircase, whose double balustrade of white marble had a handrail covered with crimson velvet"

I'll stop there. I got thinking that if I had to clean all that I'd never be bored, there wouldn't be a chance to get bored, I'd be too exhausted. Then there is the getting ready for the dinner:

"she rang for Celeste, her maid, and had herself dressed for dinner. This took a full hour and a quarter. When the last pin had been inserted, she opened a window, as the room was very warm, and, leaning on the sill, sat thinking."

OK, that would send me to the heights of boredom. So would the what seemed like an endless dinner party of talking with one Monsieur after another, or their wives, or widows about nothing mostly, complimenting women on the way their hair looked or the jewelry they were wearing seemed to be the main topic of conversation. And then sitting at the table eating everything you could possibly think of and lots of things you would never think of. Then we get to go back to the drawing room and talk about hair and diamonds some more and about 2 a.m. everyone goes home. And that goes on not just once or twice a year, which would be torturous enough, but it seems to be an almost nightly occurrence.

I now realize that I've been writing this a long, long time and have just made it to the end of the first chapter so I'm flying through the rest, hopefully. I haven't even introduced Renée's husband yet. Aristide Saccard, who seems to love money more than either his wife, his son, or anything else I can think of, was once upon a time Aristide Rougon. He is the brother of Eugene Rougon, who was a main character in the first book of Zola's series. At least I think he was, I don't have the first book of the series, but I am going to have to find it, I want to know where these people came from in the beginning. His brother suggests he change his last name, although I don't remember why, and Aristide picks the name Saccard because he says it sounds like there is money in that name. I'll take his word for that, it doesn't bring money to my mind, it didn't before this book anyway. And from the beginning of the book, OK the beginning of the second chapter we have Aristide doing whatever he must do to get money, and eventually it works, he goes about it in not so nice ways, but money is his object and his method works. His brother gets him a job at a hotel as an assistant-surveying clerk, whatever that is, and although it is not the opportunity Aristide was hoping for his brother tells him to take the job and keep his eyes open. He does and it works. Even his sister helps him out by finding him a new, rather well-off wife even before his first wife has died (she's on her death bed). Aristide's sister is an odd character for this family,

"Madame Sidonie was thirty-five; but she dressed with so little care, and had so little of the woman in her manner, that she seemed much older. In fact she appeared ageless. She always wore the same black dress, frayed at the edges, rumpled and discoloured by use.......a black bonnet that came down over her forehead and hid her hair, and a black pair of thick shoes, she trotted through the streets carrying a little basket whose handles were mended with string......there came from it samples of every sort, notebooks, wallets, above all handfuls of stamped bills, the illegible handwriting on which she was peculiarly skilful at deciphering......she would insinuate herself into her customer's good graces and become her business agent, attending solicitors, lawyers and judges on her behalf......Living in the homes of others, she was a walking catalogue of people's wants and needs., She knew where there was a daughter who had to get married at once, a family that stood in need of three thousand francs......the sadness of a fair-haired lady who was misunderstood by her husband, the tastes of a baron keen on little supper-parties and very young girls."

Madame Sidonie is rather disturbing to me, like when we are told this:

"...it was Madame Sidonie who promised the Baron that she would negotiate with certain people who were clumsy enough not to have felt honoured by the interest that a senator had condescended to take in their child, a girl of ten."

OK, I said earlier that I'm flying through the rest, which I didn't, but now here it is. Just to give you a hint of what happens we have Renée, who is bored, Maxime, who just seems to find everything that happens amusing and is willing to go along with anything, Aristide, who only wants money, and when he has money he wants more of it, the creepy sister and the occasionally put in an appearance brother. Oh, and every lover anyone has had is at the dinner party which is just strange. Read the book, you may not love it, but I always love Zola, although I've never figured out why. Whenever I'm having a bad day or a sad moment I grab a Dickens book and within a few pages I start to feel better, Zola has never made me feel better but I still love him. Let me know if you can figure out why. Happy Reading.

[Kuszma · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Drága Émile!
Imádlak. De ne írj szerelmi szálakat. Nem a te asztalod. Azt inkább hagyd a profikra.
Csók: Nora Roberts”

„Drága Nora!
Édes vagy. Bele is írlak a Nanába.
Émile”

(Szemelvény Émile Zola elveszett levelezéséből)

Zola nagyon ért ahhoz, hogy olyan közelről mutassa be az emberi állatot, hogy még a rút elkapart mitesszereit is lássuk egytől egyig. És a gyomrunk felfordul ostobaságától, gonoszságától és kegyetlenségétől. A Rougon-Macquart ciklus első kötete azt mutatja be, hogyan emelkedett fel a Rougon-család a langyos vegetálásból a hatalmasok közé. Főszereplője Pierre és felesége, Félicité, akik megszimatolják a köztársaság bukását és III. Napóleon közelgő felemelkedését, így a Respublika holtteteméből jól be is lakmároznak, meg is híznak rajta. Barátaik között csupa undok varangyot találunk, de ellenségeik se sokkal jobbak – a részeges, naplopó Maquart például csak azért köt ki a „jók” (a köztársaság) oldalán, mert így remél bosszút állni őt kisemmiző féltestvérén, Pierre-n. Aztán vannak persze páran, akik nem puszta személyes hasznukat lesik, de ők ritkák, mint a fehér holló. Ilyen például Pierre középső fia, Pascal, ám ő olyannyira kivétel, hogy a ciklusban később saját könyvet is kap. Vagy ilyenek Miette és Silvestre, a két hamvas szerelmes, akik feladata, hogy Pierre és Félicité számító házasságát ellenpontozzák – ők a szenvedélyes, tiszta idealisták, akik a zolai univerzumban ne számítsanak semmi jóra.

A baj csak az, hogy amíg Zola példás átélhetőséggel festi meg a kínlódást, addig ennek ellentettjét, a szerelemet bizony elég kacskán: kicsit túltengenek az élénk színek, ami, úgy látszik, a boldogságábrázolásban jobban irritál, mint a nyomor bemutatásánál. (Van erre egy szakszó, amit csak azért nem használok, mert végül is Zoláról beszélünk. A nyálas.) Szóval nem a legjobb regénye a mesternek – de mindenképpen tisztességes előjáték a ciklus igazán nagy könyvei előtt.

[Daniela · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Kill or Zola being very angry at everyone and everything in the Second Empire. This book is furious, shocking and biting. It's also a compelling portrayal of a Paris we have come to know and love but that Zola argues was built upon corruption and speculation. A wondrous read, Zola at his best.

[Iris ☾ (iriis.dreamer) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi impresión de la primera entrega de la saga de los Rougon-Macquart en «La fortuna de los Rougon» no pudo ser mejor. Hoy os vengo a comentar las sensaciones que me ha producido enfrentarme al segundo libro de esta extensa y (ya lo puedo decir) maravillosa serie. «La jauría», título que no termina de definir exactamente lo que la palabra “curée” (en el original) representa en la lengua francesa, fue publicada en 1871.

Detrás de esta novela hay una anécdota bastante interesante y es que Zola, tuvo que interrumpir su escritura pasando largos meses, entre la escritura del primer capítulo y la del resto de la obra. Su publicación, por fascículos en una revista, también se vio interrumpida y cancelada momentáneamente por su atrevida trama. Si aún no te ha picado la curiosidad, te cuento más.

En este título tendremos como protagonista a Aristide Rougon, uno de los miembros de esta poderosa familia que tras la muerte de su primera mujer, se casa con una joven, acaudalada y hermosa chica, Renée. Situado al día siguiente del Segundo Imperio, durante el asalto de París, en 1850, Zola trata de mostrarnos una visión naturalista a la historia de los Rougon.

Entre sus páginas vamos a tener salseo vario, pues aparte de la inmoralidad y egoísmo que destilan sus personajes, el autor también vuelve a conquistar gracias a un retrato de la sociedad burguesa de una manera desprovista de filtros. La maldad es latente en una historia donde se analiza la conducta humana, donde se nos muestra una realidad adultera que nace de un sufrimiento y de una bruta condición sujeta al injusto lugar de la mujer en la época.

Lo que necesito destacar es sobre todo la valentía con la que hace partícipe al lector ofreciendo una relación prohibida e incestuosa, el atrevimiento de añadir a su relato una carga de erotismo explícito del placer de la mujer y las múltiples referencias a la inversión de los roles de género feminizando a hombres y masculizando a mujeres. A pesar de no ser mi favorito de mi querido Émile, os puedo asegurar que es otra joya que añadir a vuestras lecturas. No dudéis en embarcaros en estas obras.

[Hiba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Encore une fois avec Zola, celle ci une autre aventure dans la série des Rougon-Macquart, le deuxième tome, avec Aristide Rougon, dit Aristide Saccard. Un chercheur de richesse, une âme pleine d'avarice, ce qui n'est pas du tout étrange pour un Rougon.

Arrivé à Paris de Plassans, Aristide fait de son mieux pour s'intégrer dans la classe bourgeoise, en prenant en compte le peu d'astuces fournies par son frère Eugène. Il commence comme un modeste employé, sa femme meurt et il envoie sa fillette chez son oncle paternel, et un mariage d'intérêt est établi le jour même de la mort.
Dans le récit, Zola ne concentre pas seulement sur la fortune de Saccard mais aussi sur son foyer, qui se compose de sa femme Renée, son fils Maxime qu'il a envoyé chercher après la mort de sa femme, et leurs entourage bourgeois.
Les rapports sexuels sont présents à force dans ce roman, et c'est apparent dans les relations de Renée, qui finit par tomber dans l'inceste, et aussi dans les relations nombreuses de Saccard.

Le lecteur après avoir témoigné une relation pareille s'attend à ce que la relation incestueuse est connue de Saccard et ce qui va suivre, mais il est déçu, parce que Saccard ne s'inquiète de rien à part de son capital et de ses affaires.

Et la fin, c'est la fin qui est enivrante, quand Renée est abandonnée par l'un et dépouillée de sa richesse par l'autre, pour mourir toute seule de méningite enfin.

Zola comme j'ai dit déjà dans mon avis dans le premier tôme est un admirateur de détails, il décrit le cadre où les événements se passent de telle façon qu'on peut presque sentir la douceur de la soie sur notre peau et l'humidité de telle ou telle chambre.
Il est vrai que ça peut devenir ennuyant quelques fois de suivre tout les détails, mais Zola reste toujours un génie pour moi, parce qu'il sait très bien comment nous faire intégrer dans le récit.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The rarest of books. Zola assembles a cast of characters who are all as unsympathetic and unlikeable as one could imagine and writes a gripping story that keeps the reader interested through the end. A wonderful insight into the corruption of wealth in 19th century France. It is, remarkably, applicable to the growing income inequality of early 21st century life in the United States.