The Dream: Volume 16 (The Rougon-Macquart) - Softcover

Zola, Emile

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0995566100 ISBN 13: 9780995566101

Publisher: Lansdown Books, 2016

Synopsis

`The Dream' is the sixteenth volume in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series of novels of the Second Empire. Perhaps as a reaction to the criticism received by his preceding books - works of almost unrelenting, gritty realism - Zola here shows that his talents range beyond describing the corruption and oppression of the second, farcical, Napoleonic regime, and the daily struggle for survival. Here he portrays the very heart and feelings of an idealistic young girl, raised in a cloistered corner of a disappearing France, and now emerging from a childhood of security, love and certainty, into beautiful womanhood....On the morning after Christmas, as a snowstorm is burying the town of Beamont-l'Eglise, a young girl is found huddling in the doorway of the cathedral. She is taken in and raised by a childless couple - ecclesiastical embroiderers - in happy innocence and far from the harsh realities of the world. While she learns her trade and becomes a highly-skilled embroideress, she loses herself in dreamlike visions inspired by her confused religious belief, legend, fantasy and hope. Her only education comes from reading stories in the `Golden Legend' about the martyrs of the early Catholic Church . Her life is guided by the example of virgin saints - Agnes, Genevieve, Dorothy, Christine and Cecilia - who she believes watch over her, to help make her dream come true. She can see no reason why her dream of love and marriage to the most handsome and richest man in her little world, even if he is a Bishop's son, and a nobleman, will not be turned into miraculous reality.But, can a foundling girl, abandoned by her mother -now lost in the Parisian underworld, fallen into a life of depravity and crime - really rise to such heights from her lowly place, or dare even to think such thoughts? Especially when those all around her think her dream can never, must never, come true? And, if it should ever be realised, can her innocence and saintliness, can she herself, in her ignorance and naivety, hope to survive the world outside?

About this title

From the Author

But can it happen? Can a poor little orphan marry her prince in a recognisably real world where Zola will never forget to tell us that the roof tiles of the cathedral date from the reign of Louis XIV and that Angelique is only two hours from Paris by rail? The Dream is a story full of twists and turns. A far greater writer than his theories would lead us to suppose, Zola overwhelms us with an abundance of description that oscillates between fantastical lyricism and meticulous realism, with plenty of rather wry psychological analysis to hold the two poles together. Occasionally all these elements fuse, as when the young lovers meet for the first time in a field by a stream where the girl is trying to stretch out wet laundry on the grass in a strong wind. Felicien offers to help, putting stones on the corners of sheets and underclothes that won’t stay still. Thus, as the lovers exchange their first words and glances, the whole world seems to be blown about in a beautiful scene, simultaneously real and surreal, and open to all kinds of interpretations.

Tim Parks

About the Author

?mile Zola was a French writer who is recognized as an exemplar of literary naturalism and for his contributions to the development of theatrical naturalism. Zola s best-known literary works include the twenty-volume Les Rougon-Macquart, an epic work that examined the influences of violence, alcohol and prostitution on French society through the experiences of two families, the Rougons and the Macquarts. Other remarkable works by Zola include Contes ? Ninon, Les Myst?res de Marseille, and Th?r?se Raquin.

In addition to his literary contributions, Zola played a key role in the Dreyfus Affair of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. His newspaper article J Accuse accused the highest levels of the French military and government of obstruction of justice and anti-semitism, for which he was convicted of libel in 1898. After a brief period of exile in England, Zola returned to France where he died in 1902. ?mile Zola is buried in the Panth?on alongside other esteemed literary figures Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas.

Edition details

• Publisher: Lansdown Books
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0995566100
• ISBN 13: 9780995566101
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 202
• Editor: Gilleece Fiona