October, 2024. We begin. This is about the Rougon Macquart cycle, all of it, twenty novels-- but the Oxford World Classics paperback editions, not kindOctober, 2024. We begin. This is about the Rougon Macquart cycle, all of it, twenty novels-- but the Oxford World Classics paperback editions, not kindle or ebook. From what I could see, no hardback edition [Everyman, Modern, etc] published the entire cycle in modern translation. The Oxford books are deceptively good, offering a sort of Student's Minimum of basic, efficient, value-- at about $15 each, which, sigh, is where we're at even for paperbacks.
I'm reading the cycle in the Zola-prescribed order, so will start with The Fortune Of The Rougons .... but the intention here is a running commentary of all things RM, and I'll be skipping back and forth to try to clarify, improve, expand the entries as I go. So this will be constantly in edit mode, and probably end up as more a journal of the process than a review. ___
First it might be good to list the Macro themes, the long-game framing by the author. By design, each book zones in on a sub-theme that is complex, but exists only to define the bigger structure. So a few (unsurprising) major themes first. Worth saying, here at the outset, though I'd read three of the RM books before restarting at one with The Fortune, that there is a fundamental difference between Zola's effort and the omnipresent 'multi-generational saga of a splintered family melodrama'--- that THIS IS NOT what was intended here. Those kinds of books use a splashy historical background as filler and color, for an even splashier soap-opera, amongst the stock-issue characters. The knows-better, too-stern Father, the disenchanted son, the wayward but headstrong daughter, etc. In Zola's RM world-- the characters exist only to drive the narrative along & populate the Era, which is his major concern.
Zola is a documentarist, interested in clarity, a journalistic photo of the times, which in themselves weren't unfailingly splashy. As it happened, they did lead to the crack-up of the world order in WWI, but Zola lives in preamble times. Birth of the Modern times, where no one is quite sure what will happen, but fairly sure something is happening. ___
Two things I've noticed. The mature documentarist voice in Zola is constantly at war with the young author's voluptuous appetite, for color, emotion, engagement. That undertow isn't far below the monochrome surface. And when Zola tells you that "it was rumored" that Count, Duke or Marquis X might have had a mistress, or might actually be the father of a character in question-- it's generally true, and he's just disinclined to go beyond rumor on the page. Helps if you remember, though.
I've decided to try to avoid the spoilers that the Oxford series includes in its Forewords --and every printed review seems to include without notice-- in a review of the cycle. But no guarantees, it might happen. Also thinking maybe it's for the best not to do individual reviews of each of the books ... Ooops no. See below. __________________________________
Update, March 2025. Five novels in, now reading number six, The Conquest Of Plassans. Now realize there will have to be individual reviews. To which I'll post links at the top of this update page. Worth saying at this point that this has been great reading, and not a slog at any point thus far. I've learned to end each novel by going back to the very informative Oxford Classics Foreword in the book, which along with the plentiful footnotes along the way-- illuminates the context and historical background of Zola's cycle. I recommend saving those till the end.
Another couple of things I've noticed .... There's generally a 'witch' character, who is a devious prognosticator or instigator behind the scenes. In fact there are generally two emblematic woman characters, one being the resourceful witch and the other being a resolutely virtuous opposite to that. As perhaps in life, the witch character is far from just hostile or harmful; in fact she's often the most useful character to the author and the novel's forward progress, positioned to know things in advance, or to impel backstage dramatic surges.
Another is what I'm calling the 'Zola Panorama' -- a literary equivalent of the 18th century visual mural, but in words. An attempt at all-encompassing view that excludes nothing, noting all specifics in a sweeping, lengthy, descriptive passage, that will immerse the reader completely in the scene. Zola does this in nearly every novel, though the sequences in The Belly Of Paris are the most memorable, most extended. This technique has been compared by lit reviewers to the Impressionism of the Second Empire, a verbal rendition of the onslaught of detail, the emotional fusion of light, color and line in the arts of the day. _______________________________...more
I may never have read such hardcore history for history's sake. Who was in charge of which department during which period, who sent a memorandum to whI may never have read such hardcore history for history's sake. Who was in charge of which department during which period, who sent a memorandum to whom, where the previous treaty said the border was, what constituted a tariff under the follow-up treaty, what the revisions of the revisions indicate, which formerly-influential Foreign Office poobah seemed to fall back, once a new government was empowered ... infinite detail.
Also has the same nothing-ever-settled vibe, of John Reed's Ten Days That Shook The World, another history very nearly undermined by its obsession with org-charting the micro detail.
Naturally this was a read to get to some sense about the formation of what we call the Middle East today, how it is that there's a simmering world-war going on there at (fall '24) the present moment. How conditions permitted an outside entity to form a whole new country. Called Israel.
This history is a British perspective, on how the Foreign Office of the day-- footnoted thoroughly-- viewed and responded to developments in the Levant, Suez, and the Persian Gulf, during the administration of the Ottoman Empire, which would fall to pieces in the first World War. As mentioned, the details are endless, and they are all built on other details, conditional on previous developments. The casual reader should be warned off-- this is an enormous trudge if you don't have a wall-size chart of the Sinai and Arabia on your reading room wall. Even if you do.
What I took away: first, you have to immediately remove-while-remembering-- the constructs around the religions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism from the operational detail on the ground. The slowly grinding wheels of narrative here have only some religious bearing-- beyond the Tribal alliances that religion created, anyway. Next, you need to consider the period detail-- implied but not always emphasized-- that Naval traffic and Waterways were uppermost in the minds of the Brits, that anything overland took months, that electronic communication was for another century. The land of the Ottomans was very close to feudal in all aspects. A city or port could be worthless in all but the most important 'coaling station' significance placed on its position by world steamship routes.
The narrative of the book covers the stratagems and squabbling of Empires-- not just Britain but France, Russia, others-- to do all the things that empires do. As in cornering markets, force-feeding ideology, tipping and fouling the scales of justice (where there were scales at all), and using interventionist leverage wherever possible to attain market monopolies in emerging ports and centers.
If you can hold with that-- it quickly becomes apparent that the establishment of Israel-- not covered in the timespan of the book-- is a land grab begun in the 19th century, just one of dozens and dozens of regional land grabs taking place all across the former Ottoman lands. That to imbue the Zionist 'mission' with heavenly rays of entitlement-- goes fully contrary to the leadup, the rush for real estate, markets and profit, that was in progress for the preceding century across the developing world of the Near East.
In the end, an ultra complicated preamble to a simple answer....more
This was very good. What comes across most strongly is the obscured truth that the Fourth Year of the Trumpshow was significantly evolved and more disThis was very good. What comes across most strongly is the obscured truth that the Fourth Year of the Trumpshow was significantly evolved and more disastrous than the preceding years. We forgot, immersed in our slow-boil-the-frog metaphor-- that he was way off the rails and the battle lines between Donald and planet-united-states were now very established.
Clarity, pace, and the ridiculous story of a dangerous and ridiculous man. Read while you still remember the recent past. ...more
Gets a (firm) fourth star from me only due to the subject matter and persistence of the author. Residing in the culture via marriage, de Bellaigue is Gets a (firm) fourth star from me only due to the subject matter and persistence of the author. Residing in the culture via marriage, de Bellaigue is observant and immersed, but somehow still manages to be a bit haphazard and disorganized in his pursuits. Resulting in a book of many questions, some detail but not enough, and a reluctance to reach many conclusions.
Still worth it, though. Iran needs to be an open book in our era, not an orientalist's mystery-box. ...more
Comprehensive, concise, blunt where required. Fiona Hill is a professional Russia Analyst and the methodically organized outline here displays that exComprehensive, concise, blunt where required. Fiona Hill is a professional Russia Analyst and the methodically organized outline here displays that expertise. Recommended for all armchair kremlinologists....more
A late-in-the-day Golden Era mystery, with almost all the furnishings: Odd location, odd circumstances, clever chief inspector, plodding but canny serA late-in-the-day Golden Era mystery, with almost all the furnishings: Odd location, odd circumstances, clever chief inspector, plodding but canny sergeant, clever repartee. (Fizz!) In the midst of which our casual & irreverent protagonist meets his dithery but stalwart distressed-ingenue. (Frisson!) Untrustworthy foreigners and rickety orientalism, those bounders, are encountered as we start in the cozy village green of England but spiral out to exotic locales. (France!)
Do NOT ask obvious questions along the way, just go with that pre-midcentury mystery vibe. Jeepers! Absolutely perfect beach or vacation read....more
This is an epic investigatory report, on the finances of the Modern Russian state and its architect, little Vlad Putin, the boy who wanted to be a spyThis is an epic investigatory report, on the finances of the Modern Russian state and its architect, little Vlad Putin, the boy who wanted to be a spy and a tough guy. But it has none of the bitter drama of that description. It's a clear-headed, well-documented economic report, and most if not all of the overarching dramatic threads must be drawn by the reader.
This took me all of last summer to read and it was absolutely worth it. No one knew then, that The Littlest Czar would pull an international wobbly and go face down in the historical chip-dip. But he has. This book would take a twelve-page review to sum, analyze and draw conclusions from all the material included. But a funny thing has happened on the way to that necessity--- because Vlad has skipped the exposition and proceeded straight to the spoiler, with his Ukraine misadventure.
This was a great book in many instances, and clearly required grueling sky-high amounts of data and historical archaeology to produce. It's also a great book to have absorbed prior to Vlad's cross-border road trip. As such, probably best to leave this one to the economists and historians and not the casual readers. Be assured that the evidence is damning. ...more
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