I cannot remember when the idea first came into my head to read all of Emile Zola’s 20 novel series Les Rougon-Macquart. I suppose I’ve always been drawn to 19th century realist fiction (albeit, no more than I’m drawn to 19th century Romanticist fiction), and especially French realism, after reading Flaubert’s Madame Bovary a while ago. I was also interested in Zola’s aesthetic philosophy of Naturalism before as well, which, to me, seemed like hyper-realistic fiction, and I was not quite wrong. Overall, the idea of undergoing a journey at such a young age that would take me years to finish appealed to me the most, and, once I found the first novel in the series The Fortune of the Rougons, I knew I had to start it. Nothing could have prepared me for just how masterful, how carefully constructed, and how beautiful and relevant this book would be. The Fortune of the Rougons is nothing short of a 10/10 masterpiece, and I am so excited to read the next 19 books in this series. 

     Before the story begins, Zola himself opens with a preface, explaining his philosophy of Naturalism. Essentially, Zola attempts to take a very distanced stance in the narrative, not lambasting the characters for being bad or praising them for being good, and also giving explanations for why each character acts the way they do. For Zola, free will seems to be nonexistent, as every character is molded by who they are based on their surroundings, emotions, pastimes, and even hereditary traits passed down by their parents. One might think that such a clear-cut method of storytelling, being so specific and leaving very little to interpretation, would be boring, and one would think wrong. One must praise the translator especially, Brian Nelson, for being able to adapt Zola’s prose in such a beautiful and interesting way, whether the scene is describing a mob raid of Plassans or a handful of old, malicious, and greedy gentlemen in a yellow drawing room. I think that Zola’s distanced, narratorial voice and clear explanations for each character’s actions works perfectly together, where one can see the bad and good in each character, and instead of rooting for the good vs. the bad, be able to appreciate all sides of the story. 

     The plot itself follows the origin of the Rougon and Macquart families, with the Rougons being the legitimate heirs to a family and the bourgeois, and the Macquarts being a race born out of wedlock who are often the poor. Neither side can be seen as heroes or villains. Pierre Rougon, the patriarch of the Rougons is a large, greedy, and immoral schemer who plots from childhood to rid his Macquart siblings from his household and steal their share of the family fortune. In a word, the Rougons are greedy, voraciously so, while the Macquarts and their schemes and pathetic cruelty are not much better, especially Antoine. Much of what Zola was attempting to do through the entire Les Rougon-Macquart series was to grapple with and lampoon the growing commercialization and breakneck-speed change to modernity in his time. Zola saw the rise of many things we grapple with today, corrupt and greedy politicians, Capitalism pitting people against each other, and the modernization of the world. I think The Fortune of the Rougons is incredibly relevant to our modern era, and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in Victorian era European literature that wrestles with the growing change to industrialism and social critiques. 

     Apart from the main storyline, following the Rougons at war with the Macquarts to establish a fortune, is the love story of the young Silvere and Miette. Silvere and Miette’s story is described frequently as an idyll, likened to the Hellenistic novel Daphnis and Chloe (which I now have to read!), juxtaposed against the political scheming and murderous plots of the Rougons and Macquarts. While Zola sticks to his rules and portrays clearly both the good and bad within both of them, their story reads as a fresh breath of beauty interspersed between the immorality of the main plot, and strongly cements the story as an amazing novel in my eyes, for being able to pull my heartstrings so strongly. 

     In sum, Zola’s The Fortune of the Rougons is one of the greatest novels I have read, being so amazingly well-written in its bare prose and descriptions of the landscapes, and also so good at portraying the psyches of its characters. I am so excited to read the rest of the entire Les Rougon-Macquart series, and am very curious to see if Zola becomes a favorite author. He’ll have to beat Charles Dickens, who I’m still trying to read chronologically (I just need to recover after Barnaby Rudge for a bit!), but, honestly, Zola might have a very good shot.