September 2025 Pot-Bouille (Pot Luck) Preface-Chapters 1-3

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Reviews say this book is Zola's "most acerbic satire."

Can be translated "pot boiler" or "piping hot." (For a time it was called Restless House, regardless of title.)

I read this recently (in 2024) so I'm not going to reread. "Most acerbic satire" sounds right. This one is dark!

This is where I join you, haven’t read this one before.

Well......I guess it's about that time!

Have now started. Surprised at lack of continuity with La conquête de Plassans. Octave did not go to Marseilles after finishing his bac; he was banished to Marseilles after flunking out. And more importantly, his parents were not living happily in their house in Plassans when we last saw them—-his father was in an insane asylum, from which he escaped and set fire to the house in which his wife was dying.

Enjoyed the contrast of the penny-pinching party in the Josserand’s apartment with the description of the lavish party chez Saccard in La curée, especially as Zola is careful to situate the apartment building at the centre of Pot-Bouille in the same reconstructed Haussmann Paris as the Saccard’s mansion.

I have not started YET!

I started last night, and the inconsistencies >6 booksaplenty1949: pointed out are mentioned in the notes. I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. Maybe I should take more detailed notes? But right now I am happy to go along with the variety of characters...

>9 MissWatson: I found the catastrophic ending of the Mourets in La conquête de Plassans rather disturbing. They weren’t great people, but still their fate seemed out of proportion. So the account of Octave’s parents enjoying their old age back in his home town struck a very discordant note for me.

>10 booksaplenty1949: If I had read La conquête de Plassans more recently it probably would have struck me more than it did now. I am finding it harder these days to keep track of recurring characters.

A bit surprised, or not making the connection, that Octave has been in Marseilles for three years and traveling for another two. I thought his parents were ruined in Plassans........or did he pay his own way?

I can see that the apartment building will take on a life of its own and will no doubt resemble Zola's take on society. A beautiful facade and main staircase (heated balustrades, French velvet window seats, etc.) but cracks in the ceiling, peeling paint showing the plaster, etc. Berthe & parents anxious for her to marry well!

Finished chapters 1-3

>12 Tess_W: He worked in a shop those three years, and then as a travelling salesman, so he did pay his own way. Seems rather proud of his business acumen, too. I assume his new working place, Au Bonheur des Dames, reappears with its own books soon?

I'm not rereading this, so it isn't fresh in my mind. Two questions/observations.
Is it possible that Octave's story in Pot-Bouille is starting a bit earlier than the end of Conquest of Plassans? I can't remember if it was a specific point that Octave left.

Also, though we are reading them back to back, Conquest was published in 1874 and Pot-Bouille in 1882 with five books published in between. Not an excuse for the errant timeline, but explains why readers may not have remembered/cared. I supposed Zola went for the best story and set up for Octave rather than worrying about the details from Conquest.

>13 MissWatson: Did I miss that? The traveling salesman thing? Or do we know that from another book?

>13 MissWatson: Au Bonheur des Dames is the next book in the series.

>14 japaul22: According to this timeline https://www.google.com/imgres?q=timeline%20of%20zola%20rougon-macquart&imgur... François and Marthe Mouret died in 1864, and of course François had already been in the insane asylum for a while. Octave was born in 1840. I agree that Zola may have assumed his (contemporary) readers had lost track. Or maybe he had.

>12 Tess_W: Yes, the building is clearly a metaphor.

>15 Tess_W: It’s a throwaway remark in the first chapter when he talks about his career in Marseilles to Madame Campardon, how he sold some stock on his own account as a commis-voyageur. At least, that’s how I understand the sentence.

>19 MissWatson: Re-reading, I see that Octave gives his age as 22 in the first chapter. So this is probably 1862, and François and Marthe are still alive. I will see if I can ascertain when François was committed.

I must admit that, after being intrigued by the premise of family rivalries in a block of apartments, I found this one hard to get into. There are some amusing scenes and crisp dialogue, but I found myself unable to press ahead due to the lack of a clear narrative drive, unlike the previous couple of novels in the series. I think it may just be my state of mind at the moment. So I have given up on this, at least for now, a little under a third of the way through.

>21 john257hopper: I understand that, John! I'm plodding away, but I can't really say it is enjoyable!

>22 Tess_W: A shortage of likeable characters, for sure, although one might say the same of a number of other books in the series. But the apartment building is getting pretty claustrophobic.

PB also became quite a trudge to get through for me. The drama was so messy and I got tired of all the hypocrisy and adultering. So I can understand putting it down.