Complete Works of Emile Zola (1891 page)

LANTIER (MADAME CHRISTINE), wife of the preceding. See Christine Hallegrain. L’Oeuvre.

LANTIER (ETIENNE), the youngest son of Auguste Lantier and Gervaise Macquart, was born in 1846, and accompanied his parents to Paris in 1850. La Fortune des Rougon.

After his mother had been married to Coupeau for some time, and had started her laundry, Etienne was found somewhat in the way, and on the suggestion of Goujet was sent to work in the rivet-making factory where he himself was employed. Later the boy was sent to Lille, where he was apprenticed to an old master of Goujet, an engineer in that town. When Gervaise had fallen into poverty, Etienne, who was by that time a stoker on an engine, was able to send his mother a five-franc piece occasionally. L’Assommoir.

In a moment of passion Etienne struck his chief, and was at once dismissed from his employment. An industrial crisis existed at the time, and, finding it impossible to get work, he tramped from place to place till eventually he arrived at Montsou, worn out with fatigue and want. At the Voreux pit he chanced to get work in a gang led by Maheu, and went underground for the first time. The work was hard and distasteful to him, but he was unwilling to give it up, and was perhaps influenced by the bright eyes of Catherine Maheu, who toiled alongside him. He became more and more impressed with the sense of the hardships of the miners’ lives, and his mind was also influenced by Souvarine, a confessed anarchist, beside whom he lodged. Gradually Etienne began to indoctrinate his companions with a spirit of revolt, and when the great strike broke out he became the leader. He did not, however, accept the extreme doctrines of Souvarine, and endeavoured to dissuade the strikers from doing damage to property. In this he was not altogether successful, and his influence became considerably lessened, until he was blamed by his comrades for the hardships they had to endure during the strike, and for its ultimate collapse. He returned to work, and in the terrible catastrophe brought about by Souvarine he was cut off at the bottom of the pit with Chaval and Catherine Maheu. He had always loved Catherine, and notwithstanding their peril, an old jealousy revived, and in a struggle with Chaval, Etienne killed him. Days elapsed before rescue came, and by that time Catherine was dead. After six weeks in hospital, Etienne left for Paris. Germinal.

At Paris, later on, he took part in the Communist rising, and was condemned to death. He was respited, and transported to Noumea, where he married, and became father of a little girl. Le Docteur Pascal.

LANTIER (JACQUES), the second son of Gervaise Macquart and Auguste Lantier, was born at Plassans in 1844. He was six years old when his parents went to Paris with his brothers, Claude and Etienne, leaving him with his godmother, Aunt Phasie, who sent him to the School of Arts and Crafts. After two years passed on the Orleans Railway, he became an engineer of the first-class on the Western Railway. At twenty-six he was a tall, handsome man, with dark hair and a clear complexion. From childhood he had suffered from a complaint which the doctors did not understand, a pain in the head, behind the ears, accompanied by fever and an intense melancholy, which tempted him to hide like a suffering animal. When about sixteen years of age he became affected by a curious form of insanity, the desire to murder any woman of whom he became fond. “On each occasion it seemed like a sudden outburst of blind rage, an ever-recurring thirst to avenge some very ancient offence, the exact recollection of which escaped him. Did it date from so far back, from the harm women had done to his race, from the rancour laid up from male to male since the first deceptions in the depths of the caverns?” Even with his cousin Flore, who loved him from childhood, the same terrible instinct arose, and could only be stilled by flight.

By chance, Jacques was a momentary witness of the murder of President Grandmorin, and when suspicion fell upon the Roubauds he came to be of opinion that it was well-founded, a belief which was confirmed by a subsequent confession to him by Severine. This avowal by Severine placed her in his mind in a different category from all other woman; she had killed, and was a person sacred and apart, a woman he could love without his lust for blood being evoked. At the request of Severine, Jacques promised to kill Roubaud, her husband, whom she had come to hate; but, though all the preparations were made, it was Severine herself whom he killed, in an accession of that homicidal rage which he imagined he had conquered. He escaped all suspicion, and calmly allowed Roubaud and Cabuche to be punished for the crime. In order to see whether the murder of Severine had cured him of his blood lust, he made love to Philomene Sauvagnat, thereby arousing the jealousy of her lover, Pecqueux, who was stoker on the engine driven by Lantier. A quarrel between the two men on the footplate of the engine resulted in both of them falling off, and being cut in pieces beneath the wheels. La Bete Humaine.

LANTIER (JACQUES LOUIS), born 1860, was the son of Claude Lantier and Christine Hallegrain. He was allowed to grow up wild at Bennecourt until he was two and a half years old, when his parents removed to Paris, taking him with them. Life in the city did not agree with the child, who to make matters worse was much neglected, his mother being wholly taken up with her lover, and his father with art. He grew up puny, serious like a little man; at five years his head had grown quite out of proportion to his height, but as his skull increased in size his intelligence diminished. His head alone continued to grow, verging on cretinism, until, in 1869, the unfortunate child died of some obscure form of malnutrition. L’Oeuvre.

LAPOULLE, a soldier in the 106th Regiment of the line, in the squad of Corporal Jean Macquart. He came from the Marshes of Sologne, and was so ignorant that when he joined the regiment he asked to be shown the King. He had great strength, and consequently all the heavy work of his company was assigned to him. After the battle of Sedan, he was one of the prisoners on the Isle d’Iges, where driven frantic by famine, and instigated by Chouteau, he killed Pache, who had hidden some bread from his companions. The following night he attempted to escape by swimming the Meuse, but was killed by a bullet fired by a Prussian sentinel. La Debacle.

LAQUERRIERE (FLORENT), an unfortunate man who died of yellow fever in Dutch Guiana in the arms of Florent. It was by the aid of his papers that Florent, who had escaped from Cayenne, was able to return to France, and to evade the notice of the police. Le Ventre de Paris.

LA ROUQUETTE (M.), a member of the Chamber of Deputies. His sister, Madame de Llorentz, was one of the ladies-in-waiting of the Empress Eugenie. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

LA ROUQUETTE (MADEMOISELLE DE). See Madame de Llorentz.

LARSONNEAU, formerly a clerk at the Hotel de Ville along with Aristide Saccard; he was dismissed for prying into the prefet’s private drawers. He acted for Saccard in many of the shady transactions in which he could not himself appear, and being entirely unscrupulous ultimately amassed such a sum of money that he was able to start a small banking establishment. La Curee.

He became immensely rich. It was through him that Busch came to know the past life of Aristide Saccard. L’Argent.

LAURE, an actress for whom Joncquier had an infatuation. Nana.

LAURE, a performer in a singing-hall at Montmartre. Hutin, one of Octave Mouret’s salesmen, and his friend Lienard applauded her performance so noisily that the police threatened to intervene. Au Bonheur des Dames.

LAURENT, a peasant in easy circumstances who lived near Artaud. Pere Bambousse was anxious to have him as son-in-law. La Faute de l’Abbe Mouret.

LAURENT, the recorder at the court of Rouen who assisted Denizet at the inquiry into the murder of Grandmorin. He was skilful in selecting the essential parts of evidence, so as not to put down anything useless. La Bete Humaine.

LAURENT, a gardener at Bazeilles. He was a man of thirty years of age who had recently lost his mother and his wife, who had both died of the same fever. During the battle of 1st September, 1870, he took part in the defence of Weiss’s house, and having only his own body to care for, he determined to sell it dearly, and at each shot to bring down one of the enemy. He continued firing till his ammunition was exhausted, when he was taken prisoner by the Prussians, who finding that he was a civilian removed him, along with Weiss, for instant execution. In the face of the firing party he retained all his calmness, standing with his hands in his pockets till the fatal shots were fired. La Debacle.

LAUWERENS (DE), a well-known financier who was both wealthy and avaricious. He went the length of refusing to pay his wife’s milliner’s bill. La Curee.

LAUWERENS (MADAME DE), wife of the preceding. Notwithstanding certain well-authenticated scandals, she managed to keep her high position in society. She was a friend of Renee Saccard. La Curee.

LAVIGNIERE, was one of the auditors at the Universal Bank, Rousseau being the other. Their duties were delicate, and in the circumstances useless. Lavigniere was disposed to approve of everything, being consumed with a desire to become a member of the board later on. L’Argent.

LA VIGNIERE (CHEVALIER DE), grandfather of Madame Chanteau. La Joie de Vivre.

LA VIGNIERE (EUGENIE DE). See Madame Chanteau.

LA VILLARDIERE (DE), deputy for the department of the Cote d’Or. He was a friend of La Rouquette. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

LEA, a customer at the Cafe Anglais. Nana.

LEBEAU, a man of considerable influence in the Second Empire, whom Clorinde Balbi was able to gain over to the cause of Eugene Rougon. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

LEBLEU, the cashier at Havre railway station. La Bete Humaine.

LEBLEU (MADAME), wife of the preceding, was a woman of forty-five, so stout that she was in constant danger of choking. Between her and Severine Roubaud there was ill-feeling of long standing, arising from a question of their houses in the Station, the Lebleus occupying that which should by rights have belonged to the Roubauds, who on account of the generosity of their predecessor were relegated to rooms little more cheerful than a prison. She had a mania for spying upon her neighbours, and in the end caused so much irritation, that she was ordered to exchange houses with the Roubauds, thus letting them have the one to which they were entitled. The annoyance, and the change to a dismal house, proved fatal to Madame Lebleu, and she died four months afterwards. La Bete Humaine.

LEBIGRE, proprietor of the wine shop where Florent and his friends held their meetings. He was a police spy. Ultimately he married Louise Mehudin. Le Ventre de Paris.

LEBIGRE (MADAME). See Louise Mehudin.

LEBOUCQ, Counsellor at the Court of Rouen. He was assessor at the trial of Roubaud and Cabuche. La Bete Humaine.

LEBOUCQ (MADAME), wife of the preceding. She was a handsome woman, for whose receptions the barristers of Rouen were beginning to desert those of Madame Bonnehon, her rival. It was said that to the influence of Madame Leboucq was largely due the result of the trial of Roubaud, a result not favourable to the family of President Grandmorin. La Bete Humaine.

LECOEUR (MADAME), a butter and cheese merchant at the
Halles Centrales
. She was sister-in-law to Gavard, and had an idea of marrying him after the death of his wife. He made no advances, however, and she subsequently regarded him with bitter ill-will. Along with Mlle. Saget, she took an active share in the gossip which partly led to the arrest of Florent and Gavard, and wrote an anonymous letter denouncing them to the police. Accompanied by La Sarriette, her niece, she went to Gavard’s house after his arrest, and took possession of his money, which they divided between them. Le Ventre de Paris.

LECOMTE (MADAME), an acquaintance of the Deberles. Une Page d’Amour.

LEFEVRE (MADAME), wife of a manufacturer at Raucourt, whose house was pillaged by the Prussians after the battle of Beaumont. La Debacle.

LEGOUGEUX, a miner at Joiselle. He was an associate of Pluchart. Germinal.

LEGRAIN (GENERAL), a deputy at the Corps Legislatif. He was devoted to the Emperor, and notwithstanding a severe attack of gout, attended at the Chamber in order to vote the funds for the baptism of the Prince Imperial. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

LEHONGRE (LES), grocers in Rue Neuve de la Goutte-d’Or. L’Assommoir.

LEHUDIER, a child to whom Charvet gave lessons. Le Ventre de Paris.

LELORRAIN, a notary in Rue Sainte Anne. In his office was executed the deed which established the joint-stock company of the Universal Bank. L’Argent.

LEMBALLEUSE, a family who lived in a ruined mill near the cathedral of Beaumont. It consisted of a grandmother, her daughter, and three granddaughters, all of whom lived by begging. Angelique did all she could for them, giving them food and even clothes. Le Reve.

LENFANT, the keeper of a dram-shop at Montsou. Germinal.

LENGAIGNE, a dealer in tobacco and tavern-keeper at Rogues. He cultivated a small piece of land, while his wife weighed tobacco and looked after the cellar. He also shaved and cut the hair of the village, a trade learned by him when he was in the army. He professed strong Republican principles, though he was afraid to express his opinions too strongly, in case of losing his licence. An old rivalry subsisted between him and Macqueron, a neighbouring tavern-keeper with whom he was always on the point of blows. La Terre.

LENGAIGNE (MADAME FLORE), wife of the preceding. She was always quarrelling with Coelina Macqueron. La Terre.

LENGAIGNE (SUZANNE), daughter of the two preceding. She was apprenticed to a dressmaker at Chateaudun, but after six months ran off to Paris where she led a gay life. Her return to her native village clad in silks caused quite a sensation, of which her parents were very proud. La Terre.

LENGAIGNE (VICTOR), brother of Suzanne. Before he was drawn in the conscription he was an awkward youth, but he returned a swaggering braggart, who could hardly be recognized with his moustache and beard. La Terre.

LENORE, a racehorse; mother of Frangipane. Nana.

LEON, a lad of about fifteen years of age, apprentice to Quenu. He was a gentle-looking lad, given to stealing stray bits of ham and sausage, which he concealed under his pillow and ate during the night. Le Ventre de Paris.