The Beast Within

Table of Contents

 

 

 

THE BEAST WITHIN

ÉMILE ZOLA, born in Paris in 1840, was brought up in Aix-en-Provence in an atmosphere of struggling poverty after the death of his father in 1847. He was educated at the College Bourbon at Aix and then at the Lycée Saint-Louis in Paris. After failing the
baccalauréat
twice and then taking menial clerical employment, he joined the newly founded publishing house Hachette in 1862 and quickly rose to become head of publicity. Having published his first novel in 1865 he left Hachette the following year to become a full-time journalist and writer.
Thérèse Raquin
appeared in 1867 and caused a scandal, to which he responded with his famous Preface to the novel’s second edition in 1868 in which he laid claim to being a ‘Naturalist’. That same year he began to work on a series of novels intended to trace scientifically the effects of heredity and environment in one family:
Les Rougon-Macquart.
This great cycle eventually contained twenty novels, which appeared between 1870 and 1893. In 1877 the seventh of these,
L’Assommoir (The Drinking Den),
a study of alcoholism in working-class Paris, brought him abiding wealth and fame. On completion of the Rougon-Macquart series he began a new cycle of novels,
LesTroisVilles: Lourdes,Rome, Paris
(1894-8), a violent attack on the Church of Rome, which led to another cycle,
Les Quatre Évangiles.
While his later writing was less successful, he remained a celebrated figure on account of the Dreyfus case, in which his powerful interventions played an important part in redressing a heinous miscarriage of justice. His marriage in 1870 had remained childless, but his happy, public relationship in later life with Jeanne Rozerot, initially one of his domestic servants, brought him a son and a daughter. He died in mysterious circumstances in 1902, the victim of an accident or murder.

 

ROGER WHITEHOUSE was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Aston, in Birmingham. He studied French at the University of Oxford and later at the University of Warwick, where he specialized in Renaissance Studies. For several years he lived and worked in Paris, teaching at the École Normale Supérieure and at the Sorbonne. In 1970 he joined the staff at Bolton Institute as a lecturer in French and subsequently became Head of Literary Studies there. In 2000 he was appointed as a Research Fellow. He has previously translated Flaubert’s
Three Tales
(Penguin Classics, 2005) and is currently editing an anthology of the work of the Belgian poet Émile Verhaeren.

PENGUIN CLASSICS

 

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First published 1890 This translation first published 2007 1

Translation and editorial matter copyright © Roger Whitehouse, 2007

All rights reserved

 

 

The moral right of the translator and editor has been asserted

 

Set in 10.25/12.25 pt PostScript Adobe Sabon Typeset by Rowland Phototypesetting Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

 

 

eISBN : 978-1-101-16061-9

1840 (2 April) Émile Zola born in Paris, the only son of an Italian engineer, Francesco Zola (b. 1795) and of Françoise-Emilie Auber (b. 1819).

1843 The family moves to Aix-en-Provence, which becomes the town of ‘Plassans’ in the Rougon-Macquart novels. Plassans is the birthplace of Jacques Lantier.

1847 (27 March) Francesco Zola dies from pneumonia caught while supervising a project to supply Aix-en-Provence with drinking water. The family is left almost destitute.

1848 The July monarchy (King Louis-Philippe) is overthrown, and the Second Republic is declared.

1851 The Republic is dissolved after the
coup d‘état
of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte.

1852 (2 December) Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed Emperor as Napoleon III. Start of the Second Empire, the period in which the Rougon-Macquart novels are set. Zola is enrolled as a boarder at the College Bourbon in Aix, where he forms a friendship with Paul Cézanne.

1853 (June) Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann is appointed Prefect of the Seine and begins major rebuilding of central Paris (this is mentioned in
La Bête humaine).

1858 (February) Leaves Aix to join his mother in Paris. Attends the Lycée Saint-Louis.

1859 Falls ill with typhoid and twice fails the
baccalauréat.

1860 A period of great hardship. Attempts to make a living from writing. (6 December) Victor Poinsot murdered on a train travelling from Troyes to Paris.

1862 (I March) Zola starts working for the publisher Hachette. Initially employed in the dispatch office, he is quickly appointed as head of publicity. (31 October) Becomes a naturalized French citizen.

1863 First newspaper article published.

1864 Publication of his first literary work,
Contes à Ninon,
a collection of short stories.

1865 Publishes first novel,
La Confession de Claude.
Meets his future wife, Gabrielle-Alexandrine Meley (b. 1839). They do not marry until 1870.

1866 Resigns his position at Hachette. From this point Zola lives by his writing. Writes articles for
L‘Événement,
praising the work of Manet and Monet. Frequents the Café Guerbois in the Batignolles district of Paris, the rendezvous of the Impressionist painters. (November)
L’Événement
suppressed.

1867 Publication of
Thérèse Raquin.

1868 (April) In the preface to the second edition of
Thérèse Raquin,
Zola announces his allegiance to the literary school of ‘Naturalism’. (December) Publication of
Madeleine Férat.
Begins to plan the Rougon-Macquart cycle of novels. Signs contract for the work with the publisher Lacroix. Continues to work as journalist for various newspapers.

1869 (May) Elections for Legislative Assembly. Civil disturbances in Paris. The action of
La Bête humaine
takes place between mid-February 1869 and July 1870.

1870 (8 May) Plebiscite on new constitution. (3 I May) Marries Alexandrine. (19 July) France declares war on Prussia. (September) Napoleon III surrenders to Prussia at Sedan. The Third Republic is declared. Zola moves temporarily to Marseille. Paris is besieged by the Prussian army. Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie go into exile in England.
La Fortune des Rougon,
the first of the Rougon-Macquart novels, begins to appear in serial form.

1871 (28 January) Armistice with Prussia. (March) Zola returns to Paris. (28 March) Election of the Commune. (28 May) End of the Commune. Publication in book form of
La Fortune des Rougon.

1872 (January) Publication of
La Curée.

1873 (April) Publication of Le Ventre de Paris, set in and around the central Paris market, Les Halles.

1874 (May) Publication of
La Conquête de Plassans.

1875 (April) Publication of
La Faute de l‘Abbé Mouret.
1876 (February) Publication of Son Excellence
Eugène
Rougon. The novel describes the career of a Minister of State under the Second Empire. Later in the year
L’Assommoir
appears in serialized form, firstly in
Le Bien public,
and subsequently in
La République des Lettres (Le Bien public
having refused to continue publication). The novel gives a sombre account of the effects of drink on the working-class inhabitants of the Paris slums.

1877
L’Assommoir
is published in book form. The novel is a bestseller (thirty-eight impressions in one year) and establishes Zola’s reputation as a novelist. After years of hardship, Zola becomes a rich man. Paintings of the Gare Saint-Lazare by Monet.

1878 Zola buys a house at Médan, thirty miles outside Paris. He uses the house as a retreat for his writing. (June) Publication of
Une page d’amour,
a gentler story of domestic life. 1879 Publication in serial form of
Nana,
the story of a high-class prostitute.

1880 (8 May) Death of Zola’s literary mentor, Gustave Flaubert. (October) Death of Zola’s mother. Zola experiences depression and suspends work on the Rougon-Macquart novels. (December) Outlines the theory of Naturalism in Le
Roman expérimental.

1882 Publication of
Pot-Bouille.

1883 (March) Publication of
Au Bonheur desDames,
a novel describing the life and intrigues of a large Paris department store.

1884 (March) Publication of
La Joie de vivre.

1885 (March) Publication of
Germinal,
a novel set in a mining community in the north of France. The novel describes the dangers and hardships experienced by the miners and their revolt against their employers. The revolt is led by Étienne Lantier. Publication of French translation of Dostoyevsky’s
Crime and Punishment.

1886 (April) Publication of
L‘CEuvre,
a novel describing the fortunes of Claude Lantier, a painter obsessed with radical new theories about art. The novel draws upon Zola’s close friendship with Cézanne. Cézanne, however, objects to the novel and ends their friendship. (Also April) The Prefect of the Département de l’Eure is murdered on a train travelling between Cherbourg and Paris. Publication of Gabriel Tarde’s
La Criminalité comparée.