Dr. Sionainn’s Reviews > La Fortune des Rougon > Status Update

The image of Félicité poisoning the liberty tree with vitriol is such a symbolically powerful image, especially when you remember Zola perceived the destroyers of the republic as sneaky feminized bodies skulking around in the shadows.

Zola is parodying all aspects of modern French society through individual characters. You really see the influence of Balzac on him in this one.

The idea that Zola is a purely "scientific" writer who breaks with romanticism is total nonsense. This novel is one of sociological gothic horror (though technically, all gothic horror is sociological).
Also, so far this feels like assembling the Zola cinematic universe.

I think Zola lacks the warm humanity of Hugo, and with characters considered more marginal, I find he's not very kind.

All these village arseholes can go kick rocks, I like Adélaïde.

I love Zola, but I never thought he was very good a portraying love/relationships/the fully human aspect of society. He tends to portray people as sterile social experiments. However, I think this is the first portrayal of a couple that I could actually call tender in his work.

It's so rare to see Zola showing any sense of the romantic, but when Miette wraps her cloak around Silvère, it's so lofty and tender. I really didn't think Zola had it in him, to be honest.

Since undergrad, I've wanted to read Zola's twenty volume Rougon-Macquart series in order. I ordered the first five and am buckling down.
For all the prestige Zola has, it's interesting to see how his writing is reminiscent of scandalous 'trashy' novels of the time. That being said, starting his novel with how children play with skulls in this doomed town is pretty hardcore.