The Fortune of the Rougons

The Fortune of the Rougons is the first in Zola's famous Rougon-Macquart series of novels. In it we learn how the two branches of the family came about, and the origins of the hereditary weaknesses passed down the generations. Murder, treachery, and greed are the keynotes, and just as the Empire was established through violence, the "fortune" of the Rougons is paid for in blood.

Set in the fictitious Proveni??al town of Plassans, The Fortune of the Rougons tells the story of Silvi??re and Miette, two idealistic young supporters of the republican resistance to Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's coup d'i??tat of December 1851. They join the woodcutters and peasants of the Var to seize control of Plassans, and are opposed by the Bonapartist loyalists led by Silvi??re's uncle, Pierre Rougon. Meanwhile, the foundations of the Rougon family and its illegitimate Macquart branch are being laid in the brutal beginnings of the Imperial regime.

Brian Nelson provides an engaging translation as well as a wide-ranging introduction that explains the background to the Rougon-Macquart series as well as the historical setting of the novel and its special qualities. This edition also features a chronology, bibliography, and extensive explanatory notes.

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Brian Nelson is an Emeritus Professor of French Studies and Translation at Monash University, Melbourne. He is the author or editor of twelve books on aspects of modern French and European culture, including The Cambridge Companion to i??mile Zola, and he has translated four other Zola novels for the Oxford World's Classics series.