Emile Zola - Resources and General Discussion

Please use this thread for general information, links to resources, and and discussion of Zola and his works in general. We will have separate threads discussing specific works.

This is fairly obvious, and I've posted it before but if you go to the Rougon-Macquart Wikipedia page and scroll down, you get a list of Rougon-Macquart titles in recent English translation and a list that shows Zola's recommended reading order.

When I have more time, I'll post my reviews of the Zolas I've already read on the work threads.

I've read the entire Rougon Macquart series--though not in order. Many of them are older translations--quite a few by his original English translator Ernest A. Vizetelly. A few of these works aren't very good IMO. Zola could be overwrought at times. A lot of them are terrific reading though. My favorite is The earth though Germinal, The debacle, L'Assomoir, The ladies paradise, La bete humaine are all really excellent. Most of the rest of them are pretty good though there are 4 or 5 that kind of stink.

I own the entire Rougon-Macquart series as the Pleiade series. (leather bound, with gold lettering on the spine and bible paper)

And then I own a lot of the individual books in the older stylized versions (the ones with colored paper spines) that definitely carry that distinct smell of "book".

I'm thinking I'll read one book from a Pleiade to see what additional notes come in but stick to the easier paperbacks for other reads.

Cool looking books, Lilisin.

lriley, My understanding is that the original Vizetelly translations are considered not very true to the original and heavily bowdlerized -- was this your impression? Of the ones I've read so far, Germinal is by far the strongest, but I've also loved Nana, L'Assommoir, and The Kill.

In regards to Vizetelly--if I remember correctly when Zola fled France to avoid prosecution vis-a-vis his part in the Dreyfus affair he stayed with the Vizetelly's--so they did know (or came to know) each other very well.

Of my favorites listed above--the translations I've read are as follows The Earth (Douglas Parmee), Germinal (Havelock Ellis), The Debacle (Leonard Tancock), L'Assommoir (Leonard Tancock), The Ladies paradise (Brian Nelson) and La bete humaine (Leonard Tancock). The Vizetelly translations include The belly of Paris, The masterpiece, His excellency Eugene Rougon, The conquest of Plassans, Money, Dr. Pascal, The fortune of the Rougons and The joy of life. I've also read Vizetelly's translation of Lourdes which is not one of the Rougon Macquart novels. Vizetelly's are more hit and miss with The belly of Paris, The masterpiece, His excellency Eugene Rougon and Money being the best of them IMO.

Nana (George Holden) and Pot luck (Brian Nelson) are also very good novels. Dr. Pascal-the final book--a bit overrated.

There's a lot going on in some of Zola's novels. The ladies paradise would be an excellent example. The center of Paris being demolished to straighten out the avenues. The birth of the department store. It's a fun book to read and there's a lot of historical observation throughout. The debacle as well with the Franco-Prussian war leading into the Paris commune. I like The Earth the best though because of the comedy involved--albeit very black at times. None of his other books come close to that in that aspect.

Interesting about Zola's relationship with the Vizetellys. I now have all the R-Ms in recent English translation, but the translators are varied. Will hav eto check.

Here are four websites offering resources (in English) for the Rougon-Macquart series, including such things as summaries of the novels, a dictionary of characters, and a family tree. Obviously some of the information about the characters will contain plot spoilers. I've been looking for a copy of the family tree that will print legibly on a single sheet of paper to keep on my reading table as a reference. I haven't found one so far.

The first link is actually a free ebook. It contains the most complete list of characters and localities.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5103/5103-h/5103-h.htm

http://www.angelfire.com/journal/zmast/geneology.html

http://emilezola.info/index.htm

http://www.well.com/~jax/literature/Rougon-Macquart.html

So far I've read just Thérèse Raquin (not in the R-M cycle) and Germinal. I'm currently reading The Fortune of the Rougons. That will leave 12 R-M novels with modern English translations, so I'm planning to read one per month in 2013.

I recently finished reading The Fortune of the Rougons on my Kindle. Amazon will let me lend this title one time (only) to any other Kindle user for 14 days. If you would like to borrow it just send me a PM with your email address (the one on your Kindle account) and the day you would like me to initiate the loan. I can only do this once, so the first request gets it.

This is the Oxford World's Classics edition with the 2012 translation by Brian Nelson. It's just 300 pages and very readable, so you should have no problem finishing it in 14 days.

I became a Zolaphile in 2012 after reading L'Assommoir and The Belly of Paris.

I found both fairly revelatory, since my only previous contact with EZ was in theatre school, where we studied him as an exemplar of Naturalism, which I then found to be a rather dull topic (I was young and liked only explicitly 'weird' stuff).

Brian Nelson's trans. of The Belly of Paris is really very good, at least in terms of readability (I unf. don't know French). I exchanged a couple of emails with him re: the availability of the Oxford World's Classics editions for Kindle -- he seems like a nice guy (this was just before his translation of The Fortune of the Rougons came out).

I have two unread copies of Ladies' Delight / Au Bonheur des Dames (a long story that makes sense when you know it). I can mail someone my second copy, an April Fitzlyon translation, published by Oneworld Classics in 2008. Just PM me your mailing address. Early bird...

11 -
That's the only Zola I've read so far in my life. It was good but I definitely need to read more to get a better feel for Zola.

I've started threads for the six works by Zola I've read so far, and posted my reviews on them. Maybe others who've already read/reviewed works by Zola can do the same.

I noticed that user "labwriter" has just created a group called "Emile Zola (English translations)." So far she is the only member.

http://www.librarything.com/groups/emilezolaenglishtran

That's interesting. I think I'll go over there and give her a link to this group. How did you find it so quickly?

How did you find it so quickly?

Pure accident. I was on the Groups page looking up the group for bug reports and just happened to see Zola's picture at the bottom of the page under "Newly Created Groups."

>14 StevenTX:, >15 rebeccanyc: Hello. Yes, I created a group for Zola because I didn't want my 75 group thread to become "everything Zola." I'd been talking to myself over at the 75 about Zola, and probably boring everyone to pieces. I looked for something like this before I created the group, but I didn't find this thread for some reason.

Now I've nixed the group and will bring my posts over here, although I see I'm late to the party so I probably won't post all that much. I do enjoy reading what others have posted here. I'm reading the books in the order recommended by Zola. Currently I'm about halfway through The Fortune of the Rougons, so I've obviously just begun. I plan to read the Brian Nelson translations where available.

I will probably throw out my reading plan and skip around once I get farther into these books, but here's the order, recommended by Zola.

1. The Fortune of the Rougons, trans. Brian Nelson.
2. His Excellency Eugene Rougon, trans. Vizetelly.
3. The Kill, trans. Brian Nelson.
4. Money (L'Argent), trans. Valerie Minogue.
5. The Dream (Le Reve), trans. Eliza E. Chase.
6. The Conquest of Plassans, trans. Vizetelly.
7. Pot Luck, trans. Brian Nelson.
8. The Ladies' Paradise, trans. Brian Nelson.
9. The Sin of Father Mouret, trans. ?; ed. Stephen R Pastore.
10. A Love Episode, trans. C.C. Starkweather.
11. The Belly of Paris, trans. Brian Nelson.
12. La Joie de Vivre, trans. ?, probably Vizetelly. Alternately, Zest for Life, put out by the Emile Zola Society, trans. Jean Stewart (1955).
13. L'Assommoir, trans. Margaret Mauldon.
14. The Masterpiece, trans. Thomas Walton.
15. La Bete Humaine, trans. Roger Pearson. Alternately The Beast Within, trans. Roger Whitehouse.
16. Germinal, trans. Peter Collier. There's a 2011 trans. by Raymond Mackenzie.
17. Nana, trans. Douglas Parmee.
18. The Earth, trans. Douglas Parmee.
19. The Debacle, trans. Leonard Tancock.
20. Doctor Pascal, trans. Mary J. Serrano.

Happy reading!

Welcome, labwriter. It can be difficult to find groups on LT, so I'm glad through Steven's eagle eye we've lured you here. That's the order I'm reading them in (except for some I read out of order initially), but I'm skipping the ones that aren't in recent translation because of the bowdlerization problem.

The edition of Le Reve I read was translated by Michael Glencross and published in 2005, and there is a 1957 translation of The Conquest of Plassans, translated as A Priest in the House by Brian Rhys. There is also a 1969 translation of The Sin of Father Mouret by Sandy Petrey. (Both of the last two I had to order as used books; they are out of print.)

Have you had any luck with the Zola Society? I e-mailed them about their books and there was something fishy about the whole thing. See this post on one of my Club Read reading threads last year.

That's a very strange response from the Zola Society. I haven't had any dealings with them and now probably won't.

Ah so glad I just happen to see this one of my challange this year is to read at 13 of Zola's books and yes I am reading the Rougon-Macquart series or at least the ones I can find. So far I have gotten The Foutune of the Rougon, The Sin of Father Mouret and Germinal and I have waiting for me The Ladie's Paradise, The Belly of Paris and His Masterpiece. And all of these are on my kindle Im having a very hard time finding paper copies.

>20 ALWINN: I'm surprised you can't get paper copies. I've found recent translations in Penguin and Oxford World Classics editions. I fear the Kindle versions you're getting may be the old, bowdlerized translations.

Well Im cheap and dont like buying NEW books and the used book store that I go to have not had any Zola can you believe it. But I may just have to go out a little further and some other books store that not in my 10 radius.

The Oxford World Classics with the new transalations are available on Kindle and what Ive been reading. They are worth the extra few bucks!