Mad on Zola, all right

Glad to see this group exists but sorry it has gone dormant ... maybe this ping will help?

Last month I tore through L'Assommoir on the recommendation of my girlfriend and am answering the resulting need for "MORE!" by reading The Belly of Paris.

Am afraid I am reading in translation only. I need to work on my French reading, but for now ...

... I am stunned by these books even in translation. They are compulsively readable, stirringly strong, and moving. I wish I had read Zola sooner, but better late than never, I guess.

Although I have a handful of things in my reading queue must precede it, I am trying to decide what my next venture in Le Rougon-Macquart should be.

My girlfriend has warned me away from Nana, but I'm sure I'll get to it eventually.

It's a toss-up between The Masterpiece, Pot Luck and The Ladies' Paradise ...

For me, the main revelation with regard to Zola has been what a _complete_ novelist he is. I think I half expected some kind of dreary naturalism where I would be treated to endless descriptions of the rust patterns on bolt-heads, or somesuch. And this is not what I have found -- not at all. The Rougon-Macquart novels are full (he says, quivering with the realization that he has read exactly two of them, in English translation) of character, action, social relevance, thought, and an instinct for the great set piece that is beyond criticism (mine, at least). I am so pleased to have "discovered" this writer.

Next in Zola-land will probably be The Kill, translated by Brian Nelson, who did a beautiful job on The Belly of Paris,

Not precisely Zola-related, but with the help of my copies of French for Reading and Easy French Reader I am (well ... if it isn't obvious) working on my French reading comprehension. One day I will be able to step into the world of Rougon-Macquart in its native language.

I've picked up the Nelson translation of Pot Luck, since the man himself (Nelson, not Zola) told me that Oxford didn't have any immediate plans to make it available for the Kindle.

How was it? Oxford has slowly been releasing more of them. I am now reading The Conquest of Plassans (after reading Fortune of the Rougons, The Kill and The Belly of Paris). I couldn't agree more with your comments at 3!

I've read all of the Roguon-Macquart series of twenty novels + Therese Raquin and Lourdes. Some are a lot better than others. The Earth IMO is the best. The ladies paradise, Germinal, The Debacle, L'Assommoir, La bete humane are all really, really good.

>7 slickdpdx: I haven't gotten around to Pot Luck yet. I've been off the Zola rails, unfortunately. Maybe it was losing the girlfriend? Naaah.

>8 lriley: So far the only one that hasn't done a lot for me has been the first, The Fortune of the Rougons. Not bad -- just not great, either.