The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion

Hello, my reading folks! I apologize for being late, but blizzards, cold, and the pile of papers to grade have warped my perception of time and reading schedules. To make a long story short, this coming week we are discussing the next two chapters. Please share your thoughts.

Zola's presentation of the world around politics and power is very different from usual court intrigues. It has nothing to do with usual secret negotiations, disguised messages, surreptitious actions. This time, it is a woman of dubious reputation. Clorinde is quite different from woman Zola portrayed in his first novel – cunning and resourceful, but loyal Felicite, passionate and naïve Miette, and slightly cooky aunt Dide. Clorinde defies the traditional expectations even for a Parisian woman: yes, she is sexually liberated and she is cheeky and provoking. On the other hand, she is an immigrant (and political success comes hard to foreigners); she has preserved some of the rustic simplicity and has not yet developed the aristocratic taste of partaking meals. Overall, she is an enigmatic personality.

I really enjoyed how Zola changes his writing perspective – his pen adroitly moves from the enclosed, intimate spaces to the descriptions of massive celebrations in Paris. The city with its crowds comes alive. You can virtually hear the noises of people, feel their breaths, experience the mob and bodies that surround you. It is also a way to learn more about the previous life of Eugene Rougon. To us, readers of the first novel of the cycle, he was mostly an anonymous figure, who was in Paris, tapped into the source of information to help his father during the turbulent times, and was a gray, shadowy man, who seems to give the sense of direction to the Rougon family in Plassance. Here, through the gibberish, intoxicated blabber of his 'redoubtable friend' Theodore Gilquin, we learn how mal-a-propos and simple Eugene looked like when he first moved to Paris. This same friend was eventually detained by the police, and his loud cries, 'Long live the Republic!' could actually undermine what Eugene is trying to achieve; his career could be especially in a very precarious situation after his resignation.

I have a suspicion that Clorinde might eventually become more sophisticated and might change Eugene's life more than he could foresee.

Dagny wrote: noir sa face d'ivrogne." "

The dark face of a drunkard:-) I wish my French were less rusty.

Dagny, thank you so much for your informative posts. I especially liked about the medal. It is as if Zola's fiction becomes tangible reality.
What do you think about Zola' ability as a writer to show the massive and the individual because he does both close-up scenes and panoramic ones in this section

I apologize for a late post - I am currently mired in the papers that should be graded. Hopefully, I will open a new thread tomorrow when the grades are submitted and I will have a couple of hours to catch up.

Sorry, I was also behind in reading, but here is the translation of that sentence -"noir" actually refers to the mustaches rather than the face, but Zola does call him a drunkard. Apparently that was too crude for the English or Americans.

"You'll see everything, my children" he repeated, wiping off with his hand the long mustaches that slashed with black his drunkard's face."

The verb "balafraient" means slash or scar. That is, his long mustaches were like a black scar crossing his face. Of course he had to wipe them off after drinking, which is his main activity, along with boasting.

The extravagance of the christening at a time when many were desperately poor makes it seem as the 1789 revolution and all the later political changes had little effect. There are a couple of mentions of flood devastation and how the emperor generously threw some money about, but we already know that the government allotted public money for this elaborate event.

Dagny wrote: "Near the beginning of Chapter IV, a public laundry is mentioned in the description of the area through which the Christening procession will pass. We will see a good bit of those laundries when we ..."
He's a lush!

Robin wrote: "Sorry, I was also behind in reading, but here is the translation of that sentence -"noir" actually refers to the mustaches rather than the face, but Zola does call him a drunkard. Apparently that ..."
Not unlike contemporary Royal weddings in Britain, eh?

Again, two very different chapters. One an account of the baptism of the Prince-Imperial, June 1856. Written in the flowery style of 19th century journalism, so much more dependent on the written word than news reports today. The other paints a bizarre scene at Clorinde’s house, where Eugene Rougon is soundly beaten in a confession game.

From what Zola tells us here it appears that ‘little Napoleon’ was quite popular. Though we should not forget what is said about the fickleness of crowds, especially Paris crowds. And between the lines we read that not far from the capital the population is suffering from natural disasters. But maybe people were also celebrating the end of the Crimean War (1853-56), a carnage that had taken the lives of so many soldiers (Wikipedia mentions that 95.000 French were lost at Sevastopol, of whom 75.000 died from disease - these were the days of Florence Nightingale).

However that may be, it is clear that Rougon and his clientėle do not share in the spoils handed out on this occasion. Except for a (seemingly trivial) problem with an inheritance, we are not informed on the reasons for Rougon’s disgrace. But I read that in the late fifties the first, and most repressive, phase of Second Empire ended. The red scare of 1850 disappeared and non-Bonapartists, starting with the conservatives, now demanded more influence. And as Rougon himself explains, he is nothing but a creature of the Empire. French readers must have been aware of this.

But temporary setbacks also offer opportunities for adroit investors. Clorinde seems to be aware that Rougon will have a comeback some day, while Rougon also sees possibilities, even if in a different way. They try to sound each other out, but Clorinde’s tactics are – in the short run at least – much more effective. Her skilful use of varying states of undress is played down in the Vizetelly translation. From a literary point of view this is worse than the omission of the rumor that she received the house on the Champs Élysées as a gift from a banker in exchange for her presumed virginity.

Rougon finds it hard to believe those rumors, and because of his failure to extract information from her we are also left guessing who Clorinde really is.

Wendel wrote: " Clorinde seems to be aware that Rougon will have a comeback some day, while Rougon also sees possibilities, even if in a different way."

For a girl who is frolicsome and naive, she is surprisingly prescient. The other explanation is she is not naive, homely, and rustic. Role-playing is the most vicious of human inventions:-)