November 2024 His Excellency, Eugene Rougon Final Thoughts & Reviews

Final thoughts and reviews

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I have read that this is one of the least popular of Zola's novels in this series. However, I really enjoyed the character study; in fact, preferred it more than the first book!

ETA: Curious to seek if this is the last we will see of Eugene or if he will figure in more of Zola's writing(s).

>3 Tess_W: First book required all of Zola’s writing skill to be anything more than an introduction to a long list of characters who will reappear in later books. I’m surprised *it’s* not the least popular of the series, although perhaps, like Swann’s Way, it’s as far as many people get.

>3 Tess_W: According to Wikipedia Eugène plays a role in the plots of three other novels in the series.

I did finish this a while back, but it really wasn't a favorite for me and I don't have a lot to say about it. I'm very glad I've read some of Zola's best books. I think if I was starting with him with these two books, I might call it quits! But I have loved so many of Zola's novels, and will continue with our group read!

This was my review:
The second book in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series (based on the order recommended by Zola) and another kind of "meh" book for me. I'm glad I know that I absolutely love his later work, or I'm not sure I'd keep going.

Eugene Rougon is all about power. As France itself has power shifts, Rougon's power ebbs and flows as well. Most of the book is about political machinations, and people trying to use others to further themselves. There is one very memorable character, Clorinde. Clorinde is a young woman who has positioned herself to be around powerful men and to be admired by them. Her ambitions are high and she intends to attain them. As with many of Zola's characters, especially the women, she has plenty of quirks to make her memorable and special.

This book was fine, but it never grabbed me and didn't have the shock value that I have come to expect and love from Zola.

Finished Son Excellence Eugène Rougon. A series of very skillfully drawn vignettes rather than a novel of character and event. I personally did not find Clorinde the object of interest she clearly was for Zola, who seemed never to tire of describing her décolletage, her bare arms, her draggling gowns. The chapter set in the ladies’ charitable fund-raiser in the Orangerie was quite a tour-de-force, however. Rougon himself, valuing power over principle, is an interesting study although fully appreciating his career as Zola has presented it probably requires a deeper knowledge of the Second Empire than I could bring to the novel. Glad I read it, looking forward to more.

I zoomed through the last few chapters, I was so engrossed. I liked this one so much more than I thought I would, and more than the first, although the first is key. Despite Eugene's love of power, I liked his character and felt sorry for him when his allies deserted him. He never pretended to be other than what he was. And he didn't abandon his friends, always pulling them up with him, and trying to accommodate them even when they were being ridiculous. Clorinde was so much like him, I think they recognized themselves in each other, but Eugene underestimated her because she was female. Clorinde used sex as a tool for getting what she wanted, and she was wildly successful at it. The descriptions of her in her boudoir reigning over her coterie were priceless. I laughed that her husband kept the drawing room door locked so it wouldn't get trashed like the rest of the house!

And here's my review:

Eugène Rougon, the eldest son of Pierre and Félicité, was a small-town lawyer who ventured to Paris to make his fortune. In the first book of the Rougon-Macquart cycle, Eugène was a key player in the coup d'état that made Napoleon III Emperor. When this novel opens, however, Eugène's fortunes are at an ebb, and he has just resigned from his position as president of the legislature. His friends are in a tizzy, because they have been riding his coattails as he rose in power. Led by the beautiful but ambitious and manipulative, Clorinde Balbi, they begin scheming to put the "great man" back in power.

Eugène is a blunt man, the powerful fist, as opposed to his nemesis, the Count de Marsy, who is the gloved hand. Eugène is forthright in his desire for power and authoritarian rule. When the Emperor needs him, Eugène's fortunes rise and he has almost unlimited power, when the Emperor needs to appease the populace, Eugène is pastured until the next time he is needed. Clorinde is in some ways his mirror—bold, intelligent, and ruthless—but she is hampered from participating openly in politics due to her sex. So instead, she works in the shadows, trading sexual favors for information and deals. When Eugène spurns her advances, she begins to plot against him.

She might have liked to try and strangle him with those slender fingers of hers, but she wanted to do it properly, and the patience with which she waited for her claws to grow was itself a form of enjoyment.

Although this novel was published sixth in the cycle, Zola recommended it be read second. I procrastinated beginning it, because the idea of a political novel about a time period of which I am ignorant, seemed daunting and uninteresting. Instead, I found the novel fascinating, with vivid characters, a fast-moving plot, and enough background information provided by translator Brian Nelson, to be easily digestible. Zola's writing feels modern, and the translation is crisp. In addition, I found Eugène a sympathetic character, despite his love of power, and am curious about what his life was like outside this five year snapshot. Altogether a surprisingly pleasant read.

>9 labfs39: Apart from this novel he appears in three others in the Rougon-Macquart cycle.