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Title: The Earth by Emile Zola, Douglas Parmee ISBN: 0-14-044387-8 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: October, 1980 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Vive la Terre!
Comment: As the title implies, this is a story of the earth -- specifically, the land, the soil from which life springs. Zola may mean to conflate this to mean 'mud' -- that is, something unproductive and foul; after all, his characters display some sensationally base attributes and they can be completely gross. But ultimately, this is a novel about the pleasures and passions -- both good and bad -- that come from the love of the land, of making things grow, and of reaping what has been sown.
The book is less concerned with the Rougon-Macquart family than with the peasant-farming community of the great plains of Beauce, France's breadbasket. Jean Macquart represents the family; he comes to the region after military service, first as a carpenter, then as a hired hand. But he functions mostly as a secondary character, only coming to prominence in the last 50 or so pages. Instead, Zola focuses on the Fouan family. The book starts with old man Fouan dividing the land he has slaved over for half a century among his three scheming children. His daughter Fanny is a penny-pincher more concerned with her reputation in the community than her father's (or her husband's) comforts. The youngest son Buteau is a (...) lecher who continually assaults his sister-in-law Francoise -- and to keep peace in the house, his wife Lise encourages her to give in. Buteau develops a love of his land that is positively erotic; Zola's descriptions of Buteau's intense emotions for the soil are impressive. Ultimately, it is money that drives Buteau, and his machinations to relieve his father of the old man's nest-egg are humorously chilling.
Fouan's elder son Jesus Christ (so-called because of his resemblance to a Certain Prophet) is a poacher and a drunk, living in a hovel with his daughter, whose attendance on her flock of geese allows her to spy on the entire community. His is a life completely devoted to pleasure -- he is not interested in property unless it can be turned to cold hard cash. Completely depraved, he is addicted to farting. When a book has a line reading "Jesus Christ was a very flatulent man and in his house many winds did blow," readers should know that this isn't going to be a tale about sallow governesses and dainty tea-parties.
A standout character is old man Fouan's even older sister La Grande, a formidably evil witch of a woman who carries a heavy stick to threaten anyone who crosses her path or disagrees with her. Zola risks caricature in creating this bitter old hag who holds sway over everyone (her driving motivation is to make everyone miserable), but she is neatly integrated with the rest of the large cast, though we never learn the source of her bitterness other than pure malice.
There are dozens of scenes to enjoy and characters to savor. I particularly liked: *The donkey getting drunk and vomiting all over the courtyard. *The death of Lise and Francoise's father, who has a stroke, and the family stands around bickering, debating whether to spring for a doctor, as he slowly dies -- followed by a hailstorm that destroys the crops as the neglected father goes into rigor mortis on the floor. *The juxtaposition of Lise going into labor at the same time as a favorite cow, which receives more attention from the neighbors -- Lise included. *The frustrations of the priest Godard, who refuses to hold any more services in the parish not so much because of the heathenness of the residents but because he must walk four miles. *The hypocrisy of M and Mme Charles, whose oh-so-respectable lives are built on the profits of running a brothel for decades -- a hypocrisy shared by the entire community. *The ongoing verbal battles between Flore Lengaigne the grocer's wife and Coelina Macqueron the tobacconist's wife, constantly fanned by the surface kindness of Mme Becu, the village gossip. *The snide fun made of Berthe Macqueron, the village beauty who is hairless below her neck and is called "Hasn't Got Any" behind her back. *Mme Frimat, who collects human excrement to use for fertilizer for her garden vegetables.
Eventually, "La Terre" is the story of community, and it is significant that the outsider Jean is forced out at the end. For all their bickering, hypocrisy, godlessness, treachery, and murder, the Beauce farmers are still a community. They live at their own rhythm -- the rhythm of The Earth -- and can't care less about morals. The only relevant laws are the unwritten ones pertaining to community, family, and Mother Earth, no matter how destructive. On the whole, a wonderful book, one of my favorites of the Rougon-Macquart series.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Brutal Piece of Realism
Comment: In today's France, the landscape of its countryside is as beautiful as the architecture of its cities. However, some 150 years ago, under the reign of Napoleon III, the rural France went through a lot of turmoil. The long-lasting patriarchal traditions were broken away. The period in history, which Zola himself called in the preface to the novel "la Fortune des Rougons/the Fortune of Rougons" "the strange era of madness and shame" not only perverted the city-dwellers, but also brutalized the villagers. That is why the novel abounds with scenes of rape, incest, cupidity and squabbles. There are also very graphic scenes of matricide (part 3, chapter 2), patricide (part 5, chapter 5), filicide (part 5, chapter 2) and sororicide (part 5, chapter 3). Eventually it turned out that villagers can not live in peace not only in the world of the living, but also in the world of the world beyond (part 5, chapter 6). If there are other ironic passages of this novel it would be a marital proposal being made on a dunghill (part 4, chapter 6), a spontaneous child delivery (part 3, chapter 5) or a family that sets up and runs a whorehouse tries to bring up an orderly girl. However, laughs and ironies here are muffled by beastly instincts of the characters of this novel, which is the second to "la Bete Humaine/the Beast in Man" most violent Rougon-Macquart novel.
Among other things: here Zola had a great opportunity to create a noble savage, but he did not use it. In fact, in all the Rougon-Macquart novels, even the best characters (not only the members of the Rougon-Macquart family) have something preconceived in them, which prevents them from becoming classical literary figures. One should look for an explanation to that partly Zola's theoretical views, partly in his personal nature and partly in the history of his novels.
Jean Macquart produces a rather positive impression. Later, the novel "la Debacle/the Downfall" will complete a picture of him and show that, unlike many, he fought with fortitude during the war and did not betray his country.
Rating: 3
Summary: Intriguing, but VERY disturbing!
Comment: I found myself enthralled in this book, and I must credit Zola for his unflinching, often brutal realism. However, the story left me feeling very sad; there was so much blatant inhumanity. The tragic rape scene near the end left me horrified and numb, as did numerous passages throughout. Zola really captures a dark side of life in the country.
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Title: L'Assommoir: The Dram Shop (Penguin Classics) by Emile Zola, Robin Buss ISBN: 0140447539 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 03 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: The Debacle (The Penguin Classics) by Emile Zola, Leonard W. Tancock ISBN: 0140442804 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: March, 1973 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: La Bete Humaine by Emile Zola, Leonard W. Tancock ISBN: 0140443274 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: August, 1977 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Nana. by Emile Zola, George Holden ISBN: 0140442634 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: September, 1972 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
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Title: The Masterpiece (Oxford World's Classics) by Emile Zola, Thomas Walton, Roger Pearson ISBN: 0192839632 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: May, 1999 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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