Books by Emile Zola

Book SynopsisThe thirteenth novel in Émile Zola’s great Rougon-Macquart sequence, Germinal expresses outrage at the exploitation of the many by the few, but also shows humanity’s capacity for compassion and hope.Etienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, is a clever but uneducated young man with a dangerous temper. Forced to take a back-breaking job at Le Voreux mine when he cannot get other work, he discovers that his fellow miners are ill, hungry, and in debt, unable to feed and clothe their families. When conditions in the mining community deteriorate even further, Lantier finds himself leading a strike that could mean starvation or salvation for all. New translation Includes introduction, suggestions for further reading, filmography, chronology, explanatory notes, and glossary Trade Review“[Germinal] made me realize that when books are considered ‘classics,’ most of the time they’re actually very readable and exciting.” —Daniel Radcliffe

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Book SynopsisThe Ladies'' Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames) recounts the spectacular development of the modern department store in late nineteenth century Paris. The store is a symbol of capitalism, of the modern city, and of the bourgeois family; it is emblematic of consumer culture and the changes in sexual attitudes and class relations taking place at the end of the century. Octave Mouret, the store''s owner-manager, masterfully exploits the desires of his female customers. In his private life as much as in business he is the great seducer. But when he falls in love with the innocent Denise Baudu, he discovers she is the only one of the salesgirls who refuses to be commodified. This new translation of the eleventh book in the Rougon-Macquart cycle captures the spirit of one of Zola''s greatest novels of the modern city. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s c

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Book SynopsisWhen Pauline Quenu is taken to the seaside to live with her relatives, her love of life contrasts with the pessimism which infects the family. This is the twelfth novel in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series, remarkable for it's depictions of intense emotions and physical and mental suffering.Trade ReviewThis excellent edition offers a finely judged and authoritative translation of one of Zola's more peculiar novels. * Richard Niland, Translation and Literature *

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Book SynopsisIn The Dream, the sixteenth novel in the Rougon-Macquart series, Zola blends mysticism and fairy tale with naturalism as an orphan girl falls in love with a nobleman.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review...brilliant... * Barry Forshaw, European Literature Network *

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Book SynopsisThe Masterpiece is the tragic story of Claude Lantier, an ambitious and talented young artist from the provinces who has come to conquer Paris and is conquered by the flaws in his own genius. While his boyhood friend Pierre Sandoz becomes a successful novelist, Claude's originality is mocked at the Salon and turns gradually into a doomed obsession with one great canvas. Life - in the form of his model and wife Christine and their deformed child Jacques - issacrificed on the altar of Art.The Masterpiece is the most autobiographical of the twenty novels in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series. Set in the 1860s and 1870s, it provides a unique insight into his career as a writer and his relationship with Cézanne, a friend since their schooldays in Aix-en-Provence. It also presents a well-documented account of the turbulent Bohemian world in which the Impressionists came to prominence despite the conservatism of the Academy and the ridicule of the general public.Table of ContentsNo Penguin competition.

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Book Synopsis''It was the time when the rush for spoils filled a corner of the forest with the yelping of hounds, the cracking of whips, the flaring of torches. The appetites let loose were satisfied at last, shamelessly, amid the sound of crumbling neighbourhoods and fortunes made in six months. The city had become an orgy of gold and women.''The Kill (La Curée) is the second volume in Zola''s great cycle of twenty novels, Les Rougon-Macquart, and the first to establish Paris - the capital of modernity - as the centre of Zola''s narrative world. Conceived as a representation of the uncontrollable ''appetites'' unleashed by the Second Empire (1852-70) and the transformation of the city by Baron Haussmann, the novel combines into a single, powerful vision the twin themes of lust for money and lust for pleasure. The all-pervading promiscuity of the new Paris is reflected in the dissolute and frenetic lives of an unscrupulous property speculator, Saccard, his neurotic wife Renée, and her dandified lover, Saccard''s son Maxime. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewNelson's translation is preceded by a highly useful and scrupulously researched introduction [with] a depth of analysis rarely found in introduction of this kind... The translation itself is sensitive and elegant...the text reads as an engaging and thoughtful close rereading of the original which is especially effective in bringing Zola's fascination with descriptive detail to the attention of the anglophone reader without syntactically overburdening the prose. * Hannah Thompson, Modern Languages Review vol 102, part1 *Émile Zola's The Kill, in Brian Nelsons thrillingly good Oxford World's Classics translation, is one of the most sensuous, sexy books that I think Ive ever read. * Illuminations *

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Book SynopsisNow the basis for the major BBC tv adaptation The Paradise, this is a lavish drama and a timeless commentary on consumer capitalism. The Penguin Classics edition of Émile Zola''s The Ladies'' Delight is based on an acclaimed, vivid and modern translation by Robin Buss, who has also introduced the novel.The Ladies'' Delight is the glittering Paris department store run by Octave Mouret. He has used charm and drive to become director of this mighty emporium, unscrupulously exploiting his young female staff and seducing his lady customers with luxurious displays of shimmering silks, satins, velvets and lace. Then Denise Baudu, a naïve provincial girl, becomes an assistant at the store - and Mouret discovers that he in turn can also be enchanted. With its greedy customers, gossiping staff and vibrant sense of theatre, The Ladies'' Delight (Au Bonheur des Dames in the original French) is one of the most richly exciting novels in Zola''s Les Rougon-Macquart cycle.This edition also contains a bibliography, introduction, chronology and explanatory notes.Emile Zola (1840-1902) was the leading figure in the French school of naturalistic fiction. His principal work, Les Rougon-Macquart, is a panorama of mid-19th century French life, in a cycle of 20 novels which Zola wrote over a period of 22 years, including Au Bonheur des Dames (1883), The Beast Within (1890), Nana (1880), and The Drinking Den (1877).''A complete page-turner about the consumer society, greed, fashion and instant gratification''India Knight''A fine translation''The Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisNow bankrupt after some failed gambles, Aristide Saccard, the former kingpin of the Paris Stock Exchange, desperately wants to get back to the top of the financial pile. When his powerful brother, the government minister Eugène Rougon, refuses to help him, he forms a partnership with the engineer Hamelin and founds the Banque Universelle, which speculates on public works in the Middle East. But as his greed and desire to outplay his rivals gets the better of him, the dashing and ruthless Saccard perilously begins to inflate the value of his enterprise using rumour, intrigue, financial manipulation and all the other tricks in the book. Inspired by real events and meticulously researched by Zola, Money is, in the wake of recent financial scandals, an all-too-topical exploration of the dynamics of greed, the excesses of capitalism and its dangerous relationship with politics and the press.Trade ReviewI consider Zola’s books among the very best of the present time. -- Vincent Van Gogh

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Book Synopsis''My title speaks not merely of war, but also of the crumbling of a regime and the end of a world.'' Émile ZolaThe penultimate novel of the Rougon-Macquart cycle, La Débâcle (1892) takes as its subject the dramatic events of the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune of 1870-1. During Zola''s lifetime it was the bestselling of all his novels, praised by contemporaries for its epic sweep as well as for its attention to historical detail.La Débâcle seeks to explain why the Second Empire ended in a crushing military defeat and revolutionary violence. It focuses on ordinary soldiers, showing their bravery and suffering in the midst of circumstances they cannot control, and includes some of the most powerful descriptions Zola ever wrote. Zola skilfully integrates his narrative of events and the fictional lives of his characters to provide the finest account of this tragic chapter in the history of France. Often compared to War and Peace, La Débâcle has been described as a ''seminal'' work for

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Book SynopsisZola's great story of the Franco-Prussian War. Classics Illustrated tells this wonderful tale in colourful comic strip form, offering an excellent introduction for younger readers. This edition also includes a biography of Emile Zola, theme discussions and study questions, which can be used both in the classroom and at home to further engage the re

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Book SynopsisThe seventh novel in Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle, The Assommoir is the story of a woman's struggle for happiness in working-class Paris.Table of ContentsIntroduction Translator's Note Select Bibliography A Chronology of Émile Zola Maps THE ASSOMMOIR Explanatory Notes

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Book SynopsisNana opens in 1867, the year of the World Fair, when Paris, thronged by a cosmopolitan élite, was la Ville Lumière, a perfect victim for Zola's scathing denunciation of hypocrisy and fin-de-siècle moral corruption.Trade ReviewIt is easy to savor certain installments in isolation [...] But to read through the Rougon-Macquart in Oxford's fine new translations - fourteen of the twenty volumes retranslated since 2000, seven in the last four years - is to see the mosaic that only Zola's full scheme makes possible. * Aaron Matz, The New York Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisWhen Therese Raquin is forced to marry the sickly Camille, she sees a bare life stretching out before her, leading every evening to the same cold bed and every morning to the same empty day. Escape comes in the form of her husband's friend, Laurent, and Therese throws herself headlong into an affair.Trade ReviewAdam Thorpe's version deserves to become the standard English text -- Anthony Cummins * Daily Telegraph *Anyone who thinks the British contingent brought lurid literature effing and blinding its way to life in the 1990s should be force-fed Emile Zola's 1867 novel Thérèse Raquin, which, in Adam Thorpe's stark new translation, is revealed in all its queasy glory as a shockingly effective literary mash-up of pulp fiction, melodrama and grimly unflinching social realism -- Tina Jackson * Metro *The translator of this new edition in English, Adam Thorpe...brings an unusual freshness and zip to the task... This handsome Vintage Classics edition contains some useful editorial matter, but not Zola’s own preface to the second edition. In that sense, then, it comes close to returning us to the baldness (and boldness) of the original Naturalist document * Times Literary Supplement *[Adam Thorpe] brings an unusual freshness and zip to the task, which goes some way towards returning us to that sense of unnerving immediacy which the young Zola's novel would have given its readers in 1867 -- Nicholas White * Times Literary Supplement *This story seeps into your insides -- Kate Winslet

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Book SynopsisBorn to drunken parents in the slums of Paris, Nana lives in squalor until she is discovered at the Théâtre des Variétés. She soon rises from the streets to set the city alight as the most famous high-class prostitute of her day. Rich men, Comtes and Marquises fall at her feet, great ladies try to emulate her appearance, lovers even kill themselves for her. Nana''s hedonistic appetite for luxury and decadent pleasures knows no bounds - until, eventually, it consumes her. Nana provoked outrage on its publication in 1880, with its heroine damned as ''the most crude and bestial sort of whore'', yes the language of the novel makes Nana almost a mythical figure: a destructive force preying on a corrupt society.

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Book SynopsisPerhaps his most famous work, Émile Zola''s Thérèse Raquin is a dark and gripping story of lust, violence and guilt, set in the gloomy back streets of Paris. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with notes and an introduction by Robin Buss.In the claustrophobic atmosphere of a dingy haberdasher''s shop on the Passage du Pont-Neuf in Paris, Thérèse Raquin is trapped in a loveless marriage to her sickly cousin, Camille. The numbing tedium of her life is suddenly shattered when she embarks on a turbulent affair with her husband''s earthy friend Laurent, but their animal passion for each other soon compels the lovers to commit a crime that will haunt them forever. Thérèse Raquin caused a scandal when it appeared in 1867 and borught its twenty-seven-year-old author a notoriety that followed him throughout his life. Zola''s novel is not only an uninhibited portrayal of adultery, madness and ghostly revenge, but also a devastating exploration of the darkest asp

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Book SynopsisPreviously published as L''assommoir (The Dram Shop), Emile Zola''s The Drinking Den is an unflinching study of a desperate young woman struggling against the ravages of vice. This Penguin Classics edition is translated from the French with an introduction by Robin Buss.Abandoned by her lover and left to bring up their two children alone, Gervaise Macquart has to fight to earn an honest living. When she accepts the marriage proposal of Monsieur Coupeau, it seems as though she is on the path to a decent, respectable life at last. But with her husband''s drinking and the unexpected appearance of a figure from her past, Gervaise''s plans begin to unravel tragically. The Drinking Den caused a sensation when it was first published, with its gritty depiction of the poverty and squalor, slums and drinking houses of the Parisian underclass. The seventh novel in Zola''s great Rougon-Macquart cycle, it was the work that made his reputation. And, in his movi

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Book SynopsisHis haunting, impressionistic study of a man''s slow corruption by jealousy, Emile Zola''s The Beast Within (La Bete Humaine) is translated from the French with an introduction and notes by Roger Whitehouse in Penguin Classics.Roubaud is consumed by a jealous rage when he discovers a sordid secret about his young wife''s past. The only way he can rest is by forcing her to help him murder the man involved, but there is a witness - Jacques Lantier, a fellow railway employee. Jacques, meanwhile, must contend with his own terrible impulses, for every time he sees a woman he feels the overwhelming desire to kill. In the company of Roubaud''s wife, Severine, he finds peace briefly, yet his feelings for her soon bring disasterous consequences. A key work in the Rougon-Macquart cycle, The Beast Within is one of Zola''s most dark and violent works - a tense thriller of political corruption and a graphic exploration of the criminal mind.Roger Whitehouse''s vivid translation is accompanied by an introduction discussing Zola''s depiction of the railways, politics and the legal system and the influence of the studies of criminology and the Jack the Ripper murders on his novel. This edition also includes a chronology, suggestions for further reading and notes.Emile Zola (1840-1902) was the leading figure in the French school of naturalistic fiction. His principal work, Les Rougon-Macquart, is a panorama of mid-19th century French life, in a cycle of 20 novels which Zola wrote over a period of 22 years, including Au Bonheur des Dames (1883), The Beast Within (1890), Nana (1880), and The Drinking Den (1877).If you enjoyed The Beast Within, you might like Zola''s The Drinking Den, also available in Penguin Classics.

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Book SynopsisHis Excellency Eugène Rougon is the sixth in Zola's famous Rougon-Macquart series of novels. Here, the novel presents a detailed picture of court and political circles during the Second Empire, satirizing the corruption and cronyism at its heart.Trade ReviewIt is easy to savor certain installments in isolation [...] But to read through the Rougon-Macquart in Oxford's fine new translations - fourteen of the twenty volumes retranslated since 2000, seven in the last four years - is to see the mosaic that only Zola's full scheme makes possible. * Aaron Matz, The New York Review of Books *Im going to celebrate the 21st century with a re-read of His Excellency Eugène Rougon. * Swiftly Tilting Planet *

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Book Synopsis''He thought he could see, in a flash, the future of the Rougon-Macquart family, a pack of wild satiated appetites in the midst of a blaze of gold and blood.''Set in the fictitious Provençal town of Plassans, The Fortune of the Rougons tells the story of Silvère and Miette, two idealistic young supporters of the republican resistance to Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte''s coup d''état in December 1851. They join the woodcutters and peasants of the Var to seize control of Plassans, opposed by the Bonapartist loyalists led by Silvère''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.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 EmpireTrade ReviewReading Brian Nelson's Introduction to The Fortune of the Rougons is a real treat. * Lisa Hill, ANZLitLovers *The edition I read was the Oxford World's Classics translation by Brian Nelson and it's excellent ... as an introduction [to Zola] this has been such an inspiring read. * Desperate Reader *

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Book SynopsisAn ambitious and unscrupulous priest arrives in the provincial town of Plassans, intent on conquering its political and social life. His arrival has profound consequences for the Mouret family, whose lives are turned upside down. This is the fourth novel in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series, and the first modern translation for more than fifty years.Trade ReviewThis translation of a pivotal text in Zolas larger history of the Second Empire continues an ongoing effort to bring to light the naturalist novelists less-known work to anglophone readers and scholarship. Helen Constantines translation is accompanied by an insightful critical introduction written by Patrick McGuinness, as well as rather pithy explanatory notes that help to situate the narratives drama within the context of the Second Empire and the complex web of political intrigue taking place outside the world of Plassans. * Meredith Lehman, University of Texas, Modern Language Review *There's so much more going on here, and the novel is so worth reading, for its wonderful view of French provincial life, its extraordinary characters both low-life and high-life, its satire and its tragedy. So, well done to OUP for commissioning these new translations, this one excellently done by Helen Constantine. Highly recommended. * Harriet Devine, Shiny New Books *

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Book SynopsisRecounts the frenzied transformations that made late nineteenth-century Paris the fashion capital of the world. This novel includes a capitalist hero, Octave Mouret, who creates a giant department store that devours the dusty, outmoded boutiques surrounding it.

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Book SynopsisEmile Zola's own stage adaptation of his taut, psychological thriller. An intense story of adultery, murder and revenge, streaked with social satire, in a translation byPip Broughton.Trade ReviewZola’s steamy story of a sexual passion that plumbs the murky depths of murder, revenge and retribution * City Limits *Broughton’s fine translation confirms this as a mesmerising drama of obsessive crime and passion committed in stultifying ambience of the Paris petite bourgeoisie * Time Out *Zola’s steamy story of a sexual passion that plumbs the murky depths of murder, revenge and retribution * City Limits *Broughton’s fine translation confirms this as a mesmerising drama of obsessive crime and passion committed in stultifying ambience of the Paris petite bourgeoisie * Time Out *Zola’s steamy story of a sexual passion that plumbs the murky depths of murder, revenge and retribution * City Limits *Broughton’s fine translation confirms this as a mesmerising drama of obsessive crime and passion committed in stultifying ambience of the Paris petite bourgeoisie * Time Out *Zola’s steamy story of a sexual passion that plumbs the murky depths of murder, revenge and retributionBroughton’s fine translation confirms this as a mesmerising drama of obsessive crime and passion committed in stultifying ambience of the Paris petite bourgeoisie‘Zola’s steamy story of a sexual passion that plumbs the murky depths of murder, revenge and retribution’ -- City Limits * City Limits *‘Broughton’s fine translation confirms this as a mesmerising drama of obsessive crime and passion committed in stultifying ambience of the Paris petite bourgeoisie’ Time Out * Time Out *

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Book SynopsisCoal mines have become rare, but the miners of Germinal are immortal. This new edition of the novel, with a translation by Raymond MacKenzie, is an exquisite tribute to their work, their misery and their eventual revolt. In his introduction, David Baguley--one of the most respected authorities on the work of Zola--brilliantly illuminates the genetic, historical and aesthetic aspects of the novel. His lucid, sensitive and critical gaze highlights the real secrets of the work: its underlying anthropological and social investigation, the dark power of the tragic imagination and the brightness of symbolic and mythic intuitions. --Henri Mitterand, Professor Emeritus, Columbia UniversityTrade ReviewRaymond MacKenzie's elegant new translation of Emile Zola’s Germinal captures the diction of the novel's colorful characters and the restrained voice of a naturalist narrator. David Baguley’s introduction analyzes Zola’s personal background, his literary and scientific influences, and the historical circumstances of French workers in the 1860s as well as a spectrum of political acts and deeds in the 1880s when the novel was written. These features plus Zola’s notes on the town of Anzin that he studied prior to writing the novel, make this the edition of choice for course adoptions in history and literature. --Stephen Kern, Humanities Distinguished Professor, Department of History, Ohio State University

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Book SynopsisCoal mines have become rare, but the miners of Germinal are immortal. This new edition of the novel, with a translation by Raymond MacKenzie, is an exquisite tribute to their work, their misery and their eventual revolt. In his introduction, David Baguley--one of the most respected authorities on the work of Zola--brilliantly illuminates the genetic, historical and aesthetic aspects of the novel. His lucid, sensitive and critical gaze highlights the real secrets of the work: its underlying anthropological and social investigation, the dark power of the tragic imagination and the brightness of symbolic and mythic intuitions. --Henri Mitterand, Professor Emeritus, Columbia UniversityTrade ReviewRaymond MacKenzie's elegant new translation of Emile Zola’s Germinal captures the diction of the novel's colorful characters and the restrained voice of a naturalist narrator. David Baguley’s introduction analyzes Zola’s personal background, his literary and scientific influences, and the historical circumstances of French workers in the 1860s as well as a spectrum of political acts and deeds in the 1880s when the novel was written. These features plus Zola’s notes on the town of Anzin that he studied prior to writing the novel, make this the edition of choice for course adoptions in history and literature. --Stephen Kern, Humanities Distinguished Professor, Department of History, Ohio State University

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Book Synopsis‘A story of paralysing passion’ 1860s Paris. In a small dusty haberdasher’s shop near the Seine in the dank, narrow Passage du Pont Neuf, the young and beautiful Thérèse Raquin is trapped into a loveless marriage to her sickly cousin, Camille. While her husband is out all day working, Thérèse spends her days confined behind the counter of a small shop and – every Thursday evening – watching her domineering aunt, Madame Raquin, play dominoes with an eclectic group of ne'er-do-wells. Until the Thursday evening that her husband Camille brings an old friend to the party – the alluring Laurent – and she embarks on an illicit affair that leads Thérèse to abandon all her inhibitions and loyalties as their brutal and overwhelming passion overturns both their lives and has results that nobody could have foreseen... In keeping with the innovative and challenging nature of the original work, this radical new musical adaptation features a company of twelve actor musicians playing the main roles of Thérèse, Laurent, Camille and Madame Raquin, as well as their Thursday night domino playing companions and a watchful and distrustful Chorus.Trade Review[This] adaptation is very well-constructed - The movement Sheppard incorporates complements the score and the plot… * The Arts Desk *This radical adaptation of Zola's dark and shocking masterpiece is brimming with derailed passion, haunting criminality and withering comedy. * Four stars - Everything Theatre *Uncompromisingly dark * The Stage *With stylish book, lyrics and direction by Nona Sheppard. * Evening Standard *The sense that it's at once a moral thriller and a kind of animal experiment comes through powerfully in Nona Sheppard's astute non-naturalistic reworking. * Independent *Zola would approve. * Telegraph *A talented celebration of the classic novel's sharply provocative spirit.. * Younger Theatre *Shepphard's lyrics are some of the most intelligent lyrics ever to grace a musical theatre stage. * Public Reviews *

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Book Synopsis"Finding the young Angélique on their doorstep one Christmas Eve, the pious Hubert couple decide to bring her up as their own. As the girl grows up in the vicinity of the town’s towering cathedral and learns her parents’ trade of embroidery, she becomes increasingly fascinated by the lives of the saints, a passion fuelled by her reading of the Golden Legend and other mystical Christian writings. One day love, in the shape of Felicien Hautecoeur, enters the dream world she has constructed around herself, bringing about upheaval and distress. Although it provides a detailed portrait of provincial nineteenth-century life and adheres to a naturalist approach, The Dream eschews many of the characteristics of Zola’s other novels of the Rougon-Macquart cycle – such as a pronounced polemical agenda or a gritty subject matter – offering instead a timeless, lyrical tale of love and innocence."Trade ReviewI consider Zola’s books among the very best of the present time. -- Vincent Van Gogh

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Book SynopsisEncapsulating in luxurious detail the phenomenon of consumer society - obsessed with image, fashion and instant gratification - Ladies' Delight vividly depicts the workings of a new commercial entity, the department store. The novel centres around the story of Denise, a young shopgirl from the provinces, and Octave Mouret, the dashing young director of a shopping emporium, who find themselves torn between the conflicting forces of love, loyalty and ambition. Set in the heart of the city, Zola's novel - the eleventh in his Rougon-Macquart series - evokes the giddy pace of Paris's transition into a modern city and the changes in sexual attitudes and class relations taking place during the second half of the nineteenth century.Trade ReviewIt's sex and shopping for 400 pulsating pages in Zola's gripping 1883 novel (recently adapted for television by the BBC). From the opening image of the great Parisian dress emporium, all gilded cherubs and lavish window displays of satins and silks, you are hooked. (...) Fireworks, passion, lust, heartbreak, class-conflict... all the crucial elements are in this rip-roaring classic. * The Daily Mail * Zola overwhelms us with an abundance of description that oscillates between fantastical lyricism and meticulous realism, with plenty of rather wry psychological analysis to hold the two poles together. -- Tim Parks I consider Zola's books among the very best of the present time. -- Vincent Van Gogh To enjoy Zola at his best, you have to read one of the great novels, in which a whole panorama emerges, as in the work of one of those highly realistic nineteenth-century painters. -- A.N. Wilson Perhaps the most famous novel about shopping is Emile Zola's The Ladies' Paradise... For Zola, the department store was a metaphor for the triumph of capitalism... but he also saw it as the place where women were duped and enslaved into the new habit of consumerism. * The Guardian * It's an excellent edition! -- P.D. Smith Nothing gets a crowd going like sex and shopping. Emile Zola was one of the first to describe this new consumerist link... * The Times *

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Book SynopsisIn contrast with the epic scope of the Rougon-Macquart novels, Zola’s short stories are concerned with the everyday aspects of human existence and the interests of ordinary people. From the cruel irony of ‘Captain Burle’ to the Rabelaisian exuberance of ‘Coqueville on the Spree’, these stories display the broad range of Zola’s imagination, using a variety of tones, from the quietly cynical to the compassionate, from the playful to the tragic. Contains: Dead Men Tell No Tales Coqueville on the Spree Captain Burle Shellfish for Monsieur ChabreTable of ContentsContains: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Captain Burle, Coqueville on the Spree, Shellfish for Monsieur Chabri.

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Book SynopsisMost famous for his twenty-volume dissection of nineteenth-century French mores and society, the Rougon-Macquart novels, Zola was also an extremely accomplished short-story writer, as exemplified by the tales included in this volume. Concerned with the manifold aspects of everyday life and varying in their settings – from aristocratic drawing rooms to poverty-stricken garrets, from the hustle and bustle of Paris to the Provençal countryside of the author’s childhood – these stories will keep the reader riveted from the beginning to the end and surprise for their modernity. Contains: The Attack on the Mill The Girl Who Loves Me Rentafoil Death by Advertising Story of a Madman Big Michu The Way People Die A Flash in the Pan Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder Priests and Sinners Fair Exchange The Haunted HouseTable of ContentsContains: The Attack on the Mill, The Girl Who Loves Me, Rentafoil, Death by Advertising, Story of a Madman, Big Michu, The Way People Die, A Flash in the Pan, Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder, Priests and Sinners, Fair Exchange The Haunted House

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Book SynopsisA story of lust, madness and destruction set in the backstreets of Paris. Based on Emile Zola's classic novel. The beautiful but doomed heroine is trapped in a loveless marriage to her sickly cousin, Camille. Every Thursday evening she watches her domineering aunt, Madame Raquin, play dominoes... until one day her husband brings along an old friend, the alluring and athletic Laurent. As Laurent and Thérèse embark on an illicit affair, a turbulent passion is unleashed that drives them ultimately to violence and murder. Helen Edmundson's sensuous adaptation of Thérèse Raquin premiered at the Theatre Royal, Bath, in July 2014. It was later seen on Broadway in a production starring Keira Knightley.Trade Review'[A] compelling, poetic and fleet adaptation… riveting' * The Times *'Period noir, a psychological thriller that will pin you to your seat as surely as a Hitchcock film' * Daily Mail *'Highly intelligent and horribly compelling' * Independent *'A superb piece of work… funny, charged with erotic fissure and has a spine tingling eeriness' * WhatsOnStage *

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Book SynopsisA gripping psychological thriller adapted for the stage by Émile Zola himself from his own notorious novel, in a version by Nicholas Wright. Stifled by an oppressive mother-in-law and a sickly husband, Thérèse Raquin falls passionately for another man. Their feverish affair drives the lovers to an act of terrible desperation, which catapults them headlong into a world more claustrophobic than the one they sought to destroy. This English version of Thérèse Raquin was first staged at the National Theatre, London, in 2006.Trade Review'Nicholas Wright's outstandingly well-written and acute new version... unforgettable' * Observer *'A potent, dark group portrait of selfishness and obsession' * Independent on Sunday *

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