The Conquest of Plassans by Zola
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1arubabookwoman
My comments on The Conquest of Plassans:
The fourth novel in the Rougon-Macquart series is a portrait of life in the provincial town of Plassans. The main characters are Francois and Marthe Mouret. As is characteristic of most of Zola's novels, it ends in tragedy.
The stage is set when the Mourets take as a boarder the newly-arrived Abbe Faujas and his elderly mother. It is Faujas who "conquers" Plassans, and in so doing destroys the Mouret family.
Although this is one of the lesser-known Rougon-Macquart novels, I believe it approaches the quality of some of Zola's masterpieces. Its depiction of Faujas, his scheming sister, the sometimes comical Francois Mouret, and other characters is masterful. The evolution of Marthe Mouret from content wife and mother to tortured penitent is wholly believable.
I highly recommend this book. As with all the Rougon-Macquart books, it is also a stand-alone read.
The fourth novel in the Rougon-Macquart series is a portrait of life in the provincial town of Plassans. The main characters are Francois and Marthe Mouret. As is characteristic of most of Zola's novels, it ends in tragedy.
The stage is set when the Mourets take as a boarder the newly-arrived Abbe Faujas and his elderly mother. It is Faujas who "conquers" Plassans, and in so doing destroys the Mouret family.
Although this is one of the lesser-known Rougon-Macquart novels, I believe it approaches the quality of some of Zola's masterpieces. Its depiction of Faujas, his scheming sister, the sometimes comical Francois Mouret, and other characters is masterful. The evolution of Marthe Mouret from content wife and mother to tortured penitent is wholly believable.
I highly recommend this book. As with all the Rougon-Macquart books, it is also a stand-alone read.
2rebeccanyc
I just finished this, in an edition titled A Priest in the House. Here's my review.
I read this Rougon-Macquart book out of sequence because I only recently discovered it was available in a 1957 English translation, but whatever possessed the translator to call it "A Priest in the House" instead of "The Conquest of Plassans" and the publisher to give it that horrifying cover boggles my mind. It really is a story about the conquest of Plassans, Zola's fictional southern French town, by that priest, not the story of the priest in the house. I guess they thought it would sell more books.
At the beginning of the novel, a seemingly awkward new priest, Abbé Faujas, comes to town and, at the request of the current priest, lodges with his mother in the happy and comfortable house of the Mourets, François and Marthe (née Rougon) (François is her cousin, descended from the Macquart side of the family). The Mourets have three children: Octave, who will reappear in Pot Luck and The Ladies Paradise, and Serge who, along with the mentally challenged sister Desirée, will reappear in The Sin of Father Mouret. Marthe's parents are the Rougons who appeared in the first Rougon-Macquart novel, The Fortune of the Rougons.
At first everyone wonders about the new priest, because he keeps to himself and seems inept socially. Gradually we learn that Marthe's mother, who keeps a salon that attracts all three factions of the town (the old nobility, the followers of Napoleon's empire, and the royalists who want to bring the traditional royal family back), has schemed with someone in Paris (presumably her son, His Excellency, Eugene Rougon), to have Faujas come to Plassans, but it isn't clear why. As time goes on, Marthe becomes attracted spiritually and emotionally to the priest, and becomes involved in more religious and social welfare activities, neglecting her husband, her home, and her children, which heretofore had been the center of her life. A sister and brother-in-law of the priest arrive in town and seem to be up to no good. Life in the Mouret home deteriorates, until the novel builds to a melodramatic and not completely believable conclusion.
The strength of this novel is more in its depiction of the pettiness and cattiness and scheming of provincial life than in the machinations of the priest, whose transformation from awkward newcomer to cold and haughty schemer I found hard to take. It also effectively illustrates the role of the church in society. The minor characters of the townspeople are all well drawn, as is the picture of the Mouret home and its bucolic setting. François, at first, has good instincts about who to be suspicious of, and Faujas's mother is a wonderful creation as well. But the changes in François, Marthe, and Faujas himself just didn't seem real to me: dramatic, yes, plausible, a stretch.
In this book also, Zola lays on his genetic theories pretty thick, as both François and Marthe are grandchildren of the founding mother of the Rougon-Macquart families who is now in an insane asylum in town that is actually featured in this novel; the physical similarity of both François and Marthe to her is remarked on, and Marthe fears she is going insane.
There was a lot to like in this novel, and it was hard to put down as it built to its conclusion. I'm glad I read it, as it helped me fill in some of the blanks in the Rougon-Macquart cycle
I read this Rougon-Macquart book out of sequence because I only recently discovered it was available in a 1957 English translation, but whatever possessed the translator to call it "A Priest in the House" instead of "The Conquest of Plassans" and the publisher to give it that horrifying cover boggles my mind. It really is a story about the conquest of Plassans, Zola's fictional southern French town, by that priest, not the story of the priest in the house. I guess they thought it would sell more books.
At the beginning of the novel, a seemingly awkward new priest, Abbé Faujas, comes to town and, at the request of the current priest, lodges with his mother in the happy and comfortable house of the Mourets, François and Marthe (née Rougon) (François is her cousin, descended from the Macquart side of the family). The Mourets have three children: Octave, who will reappear in Pot Luck and The Ladies Paradise, and Serge who, along with the mentally challenged sister Desirée, will reappear in The Sin of Father Mouret. Marthe's parents are the Rougons who appeared in the first Rougon-Macquart novel, The Fortune of the Rougons.
At first everyone wonders about the new priest, because he keeps to himself and seems inept socially. Gradually we learn that Marthe's mother, who keeps a salon that attracts all three factions of the town (the old nobility, the followers of Napoleon's empire, and the royalists who want to bring the traditional royal family back), has schemed with someone in Paris (presumably her son, His Excellency, Eugene Rougon), to have Faujas come to Plassans, but it isn't clear why. As time goes on, Marthe becomes attracted spiritually and emotionally to the priest, and becomes involved in more religious and social welfare activities, neglecting her husband, her home, and her children, which heretofore had been the center of her life. A sister and brother-in-law of the priest arrive in town and seem to be up to no good. Life in the Mouret home deteriorates, until the novel builds to a melodramatic and not completely believable conclusion.
The strength of this novel is more in its depiction of the pettiness and cattiness and scheming of provincial life than in the machinations of the priest, whose transformation from awkward newcomer to cold and haughty schemer I found hard to take. It also effectively illustrates the role of the church in society. The minor characters of the townspeople are all well drawn, as is the picture of the Mouret home and its bucolic setting. François, at first, has good instincts about who to be suspicious of, and Faujas's mother is a wonderful creation as well. But the changes in François, Marthe, and Faujas himself just didn't seem real to me: dramatic, yes, plausible, a stretch.
In this book also, Zola lays on his genetic theories pretty thick, as both François and Marthe are grandchildren of the founding mother of the Rougon-Macquart families who is now in an insane asylum in town that is actually featured in this novel; the physical similarity of both François and Marthe to her is remarked on, and Marthe fears she is going insane.
There was a lot to like in this novel, and it was hard to put down as it built to its conclusion. I'm glad I read it, as it helped me fill in some of the blanks in the Rougon-Macquart cycle
3arubabookwoman
Great review Rebecca. As you can see from my brief comments above, I found the evolution of the characters to be very well-developed, and entirely believable. I'm glad that you enjoyed it despite your reservations about the plausibility of some of the changes.
I have Germinal (a reread) coming up next, and I'm looking forward to it.
I have Germinal (a reread) coming up next, and I'm looking forward to it.
4rebeccanyc
Deborah, I thought the characters were very well created but, as I noted, I didn't find all their character development believable (especially Faujas, less so Marthe, and not François except for the final change). Perhaps it is just Zola's tendency to occasionally go over the top in his plotting!
