Les Rougons-Macquart series

[Lei-Lei Jayenne]

Has anybody actually read all twenty books in this cycle? I'm making an attempt at the moment, though it's hard to find some of the more obscure titles. Having read Nana, Germinal and L'Assomoir so far, I am so impressed with Zola's gritty writing style. I wish i'd started reading him years ago.

[Harold Shand]

I've read only the 3 that you've read. I liked Zola very much indeed. Though I can read French, I decided to read him in English, having found a lot of the vocabulary in Germinal very difficult. The standard translation was OK and I reckon what I lost in translation was more than made up for by being able to read it fluently.

I read a bit about "naturalism" and thought a lot it was fuss about nothing. I don't think Zola's style really needs any explanation, unlike say Sartre's which just looks weird without some sense of the philosophy behind it. Which is not to say I'd read JPS for fun under any circumstances.

[tinminer]

Emile Zola is my favourite writer of all time...I have read Germinal at least 10 times. I haven't read all of the Les Rougon-Macquart series...yet!
As you correctly some of them are hard to track - even on Amazon, with very long lead times + premium ordering costs.

Lei-Lei Jeyanne, I would try La Bete Humaine next. An excellent murder thriller! Very dark too, but also fresh in its writing style.

[Lei-Lei Jayenne]

I've got a few of them lined up to read now, including La Bete Humaine , which i'm really looking forward to. Also, L'oeuvre, Au Bonheur Des Dames, La Terre and Pot-Bouille. The others i'm finding very hard to find.

[Three Mangos]

I think Zola was a great writer.

I thought Germinal is a masterpiece.

The arrival of Laniter in the cold night looking for work in the coal mine, his eventual lead role in the strike and when he leaves in the end is unforgetable.

The real star of the show I think is little Jeanline. The chapters where he makes Ladia and bebert steal goods and hides them in his cave, when he is blows his horn leading the strike, will always stay with me.

I've also read L'Assomoir. Gervaise- who marries a Lantier- demise is truly sad.

La Bete Humaine - Jacques Lantier fate is tragic

La Terre - The is a big book, full of bitterness, deceit and stupidity; it's very sad reading the slow painfull demise of the father.

I love Zola rich, observant way of writing, his use of often vulgar and coarse language.

Do you think Zola is a tragic writer? I'm thinking of the whole of the Lantier side of the family in his novels end up in real sorry states.

[East River]

I've recently gone back to Zola after a gap of very many years and have read The Ladies Paradise, (Au Bonheur Des Dames). It surprised and disappointed me how weak this was as a novel - especially in having virtually no convincing characters whom to care about; all but two are sketchy representatives of some social role/class or other. The story is also basic and limited. Yes, there are bravura descriptions of the eponymous department store and its wonderful displays (and correspondingly dismal ones of the small shops it is replacing) but they pall after several times when it is hard to care about the characters inhabiting these places.

I am now halfway through Nana which more fun but again a cast of dozens who are all present to fulfill some social function and are individually undeveloped. Even the title heroine is presented in a very superficial way so that you don't feel what has made her what she is, while several male characters are shown only as racked by lust. Again there are the virtuoso descriptions such as the theatre backstage but they go on too long when again it is hard to care about the characters.

We know that Zola's project was to portray his social times but I feel that writers like Eliot, Dickens and Trollope managed to do this while at the same time producing memorable in-depth characters. It may be that the two books I've been reading aren't the best examples of Zola's work and others are more rewarding as previous posters on this thread seem to have found.

[ennui]

I've read Germinal a couple of times and I will be looking to read more in the series in future.

I to was struck with the characterisation in Germinal. There is not a great deal of character development but I think that fits in with Zolas self professed naturalism. How many people in real life learn from their mistakes and go on to greater things? I don't think that individuals are the subject of Zola's work but rather the environment (natural or social) that acts upon them.
In Germinal I hated Etienne with a passion. He waltzes in, causes chaos and then waltzes out knowing that some day it will all happed again. It's a bit bleak but there is tremendous truth and honesty in it.

One issue I think that prevents people from enjoying Zola is that they are reading it with their expectations of realist novels, they expect plot, character development or even moral instruction. Zola does not give that at all. He aims at and is quite succesful at presenting real life in all its harsh realities.

The beauty of his work though is found in his aesthetic qualities, using imagery,colour and signifiers.

I'm sure that there is much more to be said about Zola than I could dare to, especially having read only one novel. But these were my impressions.
(formed in a big part by the open uni study of the book.)