Dan Rebellato

This is only charitably a book, seeing as how this is a series of BBC radio plays. But since it's here, why not review it (I say every day of my life)?

A team of writers, led by playwright Dan Rebellato, bring to life [a:Émile Zola|4750|Émile Zola|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1544927603p2/4750.jpg]'s 20-volume Rougon-Macquart in a 27-episode audio drama, running for 24 hours and originally aired by the BBC in three series. Mercifully, after a few years where they were only available in underground copies, the series has now been released as an audiobook via Audible.

The Rougon-Macquart novels take place over more than two decades, from Napoleon III's coup in 1851 to the transitional period in 1873 after his downfall. The series charts an expansive range of characters, all connected through one ancestor, who broaden out into a map of society in all its forms: peasant, bourgeoisie, aristocrat, unionist, prostitute, priest, artist, criminal, scientist, soldier, banker, right up to the Emperor's right-hand man. As is the case with the novels, many of the audio episodes stand alone (almost), although they are united through the cynical, pitch-perfect narration of old Grandma Dide (Glenda Jackson), watching the events unfold from her comfortable position in an insane asylum in the Provencal town of Plassans.

And I must give them credit; it's all very well done. There are necessary cuts and simplifications, of course. Twenty novels totalling a couple of million words, telling five generations of stories over twenty-five years with more than a thousand characters? It would be madness to turn this into a logical narrative without some truncating! For instance, The Sin of Abbe Mouret - a novel with a rich vein of subplots and thematically-relevant supporting characters - is reduced to the core story of two young lovers and the one man who stands between them. The Kill - a social novel full of fantastic scenes and symbolism - is staged over a single evening with a small cadre of characters. Other novels, such as the thriller La Bete Humaine receive two hours and thus are treated more in-depth. This is a "radical re-imagining", as the BBC promoted it at the time, so it stands alongside the 150-year-old series of novels rather than attempting to replicate it in audio format.

Listeners may have their individual bugbears, for instance the series' willingness to utilise modern vernacular, its preference for the salacious, personal elements of the series sometimes at the expense of the more complex, political ones. A simple example that strikes me is during La Bete Humaine, when Severine recalls climbing along the edge of a moving train to make it back to her carriage after committing a crime. It is a moment of great tension in the novel, even though taking place in a flashback, and the imagery stays with the reader. Here, it is mentioned in passing and brushed off; there is a surface-level quality to the material that simply cannot reach literary heights. But them's the breaks when adapting works across media. My personal annoyance is perhaps a sine qua non of the medium: the heavy emphasis on sound effects (noisy chomping of food, heavy breathing) which are an easy way of creating atmosphere but can sometimes feel exhausting to me. Perhaps why I don't listen to radio plays very often despite my respect for what it can achieve (see below).

Nothing compares to the experience of reading the books. And, indeed, the mere breadth of the work means that there's little point listening to all 27 episodes in quick succession. But this is pretty darn great. Long-form projects on film have occasionally taken place; I think of the mammoth BBC Complete Shakespeare from 1978-1985, or the Beckett on Film project, but more often these projects languish in "development hell". It is unlikely in our cash-strapped 21st century that there will ever be the money for a complete TV series, but joyfully BBC Radio seems to be one of the few organisations in the world that can still commission something like this. And with such a stellar cast, too!

Episodes:
Series One - Blood
01. Animals - [b:The Fortune of the Rougons|14827593|The Fortune of the Rougons (Les Rougon-Macquart, #1)|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347457035l/14827593._SY75_.jpg|303087]
02. Fire - [b:The Conquest of Plassans|21492091|The Conquest of Plassans (Les Rougon-Macquart #4)|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1504696902l/21492091._SY75_.jpg|803050]
03. Food - [b:The Belly of Paris|6662310|The Belly of Paris|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348413678l/6662310._SY75_.jpg|10242]
04. Paris - The Belly of Paris and [b:His Excellency Eugène Rougon|36794160|His Excellency Eugène Rougon (Les Rougon-Macquart, #6)|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1518919256l/36794160._SY75_.jpg|1356899]
05. Drink - [b:L'Assommoir|6372593|L'Assommoir|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348905217l/6372593._SY75_.jpg|741363]
06. Art - [b:The Masterpiece|2904944|The Masterpiece (Les Rougon-Macquart, #14)|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1389378496l/2904944._SY75_.jpg|28958]
07. Masterpiece - The Masterpiece
08. Fury - [b:La Bête humaine|6251724|La Bête humaine|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388366273l/6251724._SY75_.jpg|101404]
09. Trains - La Bête humaine

Series Two - Sex
10. Performance - L'Assommoir and [b:Nana|6491760|Nana (Les Rougon-Macquart, #9)|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1481658479l/6491760._SY75_.jpg|89633]
11. Power - His Excellency Eugene Rougon
12. Family - [b:The Kill|3888856|The Kill|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1475574769l/3888856._SY75_.jpg|839934]
13. Lovesick - [b:The Dream|39507943|The Dream (Les Rougon-Macquart, #16)|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1525253808l/39507943._SY75_.jpg|1504240]
14. Innocence - [b:The Sin of Abbé Mouret|34946979|The Sin of Abbé Mouret|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1493029826l/34946979._SY75_.jpg|941617]
15. Jealousy - [b:A Love Story|34927484|A Love Story (Les Rougon-Macquart, #8)|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1497282194l/34927484._SY75_.jpg|1776975]
16. Affairs - [b:Pot Luck|6251723|Pot Luck (Les Rougon-Macquart, #10)|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1475311341l/6251723._SY75_.jpg|110658]
17. Lust - [b:The Ladies’ Paradise|3862389|The Ladies’ Paradise (Les Rougon-Macquart #11)|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327856837l/3862389._SY75_.jpg|1540214]
18. Flesh - Nana

Series Three - Money
19. Crash - [b:Money|18552501|Money (Les Rougon-Macquart #18)|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1385350960l/18552501._SY75_.jpg|417025]
20. Massacre - [b:Germinal|3128376|Germinal (Les Rougon-Macquart, #13)|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388798469l/3128376._SY75_.jpg|941651]
21. Trapped - Germinal
22. Swindle - [b:The Bright Side of Life|38819295|The Bright Side of Life (Les Rougon-Macquart, #12)|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1521230267l/38819295._SY75_.jpg|941672]
23. Inheritance - [b:Earth|27310205|Earth (Les Rougon-Macquart, #15)|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1451244935l/27310205._SY75_.jpg|1810722]
24. Reap - Earth
25. Fate - Money and [b:La Débâcle|35017227|La Débâcle (Les Rougon-Macquart #19)|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1499945182l/35017227._SY75_.jpg|3522286]
26. Apocalypse - La Débâcle
27. Ghosts - [b:Doctor Pascal|52669114|Doctor Pascal|Émile Zola|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1585190863l/52669114._SY75_.jpg|1356866]… (plus d'informations)