I just finished reading The Fortune of the Rougons (1871) by Émile Zola, translated by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly. This is the first book in Zola’s Les Rougon-Macquart cycle of twenty novels. I have previously read four other books that take place much later in the series, and reading the beginning was quite interesting. Some characters that are prominent in these later stories first appear in The Fortune of the Rougons.

The story begins as the French Republic is on the precipice of collapse. Napoleon III is orchestrating a coup d’état in Paris, the effects of which play out across the countryside and provincial towns of France. The main characters of the book, all related to the tragic and sympathetic Adelaide Fouque, are swept along by these events.

Several of the characters are marked by back-handed intrigue, manipulation, and unscrupulous selfishness. Others are humane and decent, and the reader grows to love them. There is a beautiful love-story in the middle of the novel, innocent, moving, and believable.

I experienced many emotions while reading this and, by the end, was deeply affected by the story, language, and characters.

“I brought nothing but wolves into the world…”