November 2024 His Excellency, Eugene Rougon Preface, Ch 1-3

Discussion

I'm going to start this in a day or two, whenever I finish my current fiction book. Anyone else?

>2 japaul22: I probably won't start for a week or two. I'm reading a really fat Victorian book right now and will need some short books next.

I'm hoping to finish Heaven and Earth Grocery Store before I start this. With the election and its accompanying stress, it may be a week or two, depending.

Hmm, maybe I'll read one other book first to be more in line with the group. I just picked up a book at a local bookstore that I'm pretty interested in and I think it won't take long.

I read this book in July, so won't be reading it again, so I'll pick up this reading group when it gets to the third book in January.

I accidentally read it last month under a different title. So, I'll read the preface again in a few days and be ready to go!

Re-read the preface and it's very much in the same nature at the preface to the previous read: Zola wants to create a study of French society through a "natural" lens. I get the feeling that Zola wants to dissect the Second French Empire scientifically in a lab!

Those friends of Eugene, I wouldn't even call them friends! Out of a job and they are all still wanting something or upset that he didn't do for them what they wanted while he still had his job.

ETA: Clorinde smells like trouble!

Eugene is depicted as highly intelligent, calculating, and politically savvy. He is determined to rise in French society and believes that the path to power lies in aligning himself with the Second Empire, specifically Napoleon III. I don't believe that Eugene has any real political principles, but would align himself with whomever could supply him with the most power.

Looking forward to this. I am reading a book in French at the moment for this month’s War Room Challenge so I would like to finish it before plunging into Zola.

I have started this and am almost through chapter 3. I'm finding it an interesting book to read at this moment since it is so political and provides an interesting comparison/counterpoint to American politics at the moment.

I'm reading the Brian Nelson translation and his translator's note includes this:
The novel is one of the least popular of Zola's novels. However, it is valuable to the historian as a detailed evocation of politics during Napoleon III's Second Empire; and it is especially noteworthy as a surprisingly modern satire of all forms of authoritarian government and of the malevolence, duplicity, and language games of which those in power are capable.

I think there are many governments around the modern-day world still experiencing this sort of leadership.

I can't believe I already fell behind, and it's only the second book! I've read through chapter three and once again I'm struck by how easy it is to read Zola and how modern his stories feel. I didn't think I would like this one, but chapter three was quite entertaining with Clorinde's machinations.