"Good citizens may be reassured; bad citizens alone may tremble."

Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle follows several branches of a family over the 20 years of France's Second Empire, from 1851 to the early 1870s, and is one of the true delights of naturalist French literature. His Excellency is perhaps one of the lesser novels in the series, if only because it relies heavily on historical knowledge and a roman a clef approach to its characters, but its exploration of politics near the top of the food chain rings alarmingly true today.

Eugene Rougon, mover and shaker in the court of Napoleon III, experiences a political rollercoaster over the course of several years, battered against the tides of public opinion, private malice, and personal gain. The engaging character of Clorinde is a highlight, and Zola's use of symbolism remains sublime, from a charity auction where men are bidding literally for toothpicks (more for social recognition than compassion for charity) to dogs, foaming at the mouth as they tear apart the corpse of a stag, perfectly juxtaposed with the would-be aristocrats eager to pounce on anyone whose social persona betrays even the slightest weakness.

"I became what I am with the Empire. I made the Empire, and the Empire made me."

What the novel does best is what Zola does best in general: examining how each individual person's fears, foibles and needs contribute to a society in decline, even when no-one can be specifically blamed for the overall problem. The pack mentality alluded to by the canine symbolism reveals the true tragedy of all imperial and fascist regimes: most people would be better off without them, but most people are only able to act for their own gain, or the gain of those in their immediate sphere, and so widespread change is hindered at every turn.

The final pages especially - Eugene Rougon's stinging affirmation of the Empire - are a masterclass in political writing, and remind us (if we need it, at this point) how close 1858 is to 2018. ( )

Politicians and men are different species…

' Yes, beware of women,' Rougon repeated, pausing after each word so as to glance at his papers. ' When a woman does not put a crown on your head she slips a halter round your neck. At our age a man's heart wants as carefully looking after as his stomach.'
(Kindle Locations 710-712)

Then JM. Kahn, gazing blankly into the distance, murmured as though he were speaking to himself : ' A man knows when he falls, but never knows whether he will rise again.'
(Kindle Locations 1053-1055)

Rougon, for his part, sat back and gazed at Clorinde, and gradually fell into a dreamy state in which the girl seemed to him to expand into gigantic proportions. A woman was certainly a wonderful piece of mechanism, he reflected. It was a matter that he had never before thought of studying; but now he began to have vague mental glimpses of extraordinary intricacies. For a moment he was filled with a distinct consciousness of the power of those bare shoulders, which seemed strong enough to shake a world.
(Kindle Locations 1365-1368)
The great man had never before tasted such complete contentment. He felt well and strong, and was putting on flesh. Health had come back to him with his return to power.
(Kindle Locations 4509-4510)

They had thronged around him, hung on to his knees, then to his breast, then to his throat, and finally they had choked him. They had availed themselves of him in every way. They had used his feet to climb with, his hands to plunder with, his jaws to devour with. They had, so to say, used his body as their own, used it for their personal gratification, indulging in every fancy without a thought of the morrow. And now, having drained his body, and hearing its frame-work crack, they abandoned him like rats, whom instinct warns of the approaching collapse of a house, the foundations of which they have undermined.
(Kindle Locations 7197-7202)

' Ah ! ' said she (Clorinde), 'in spite of everything, you (Rougon) are a wonderfully able fellow !'
(Kindle Location 7721)

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4.5/5 ( )

If you love Second Empire political intrigue, you will love this book. If you love satire, you might love this book.

I found it interesting from a historical perspective--and totally relevant to the Rougon-Maquart series--but generally it was a tad dry.

Zola satirizes the political mechinations of the Second Empire. Rougon started as a small-town lawyer, and in this book holds several national positions in Paris. And he has his hangers-on, who are key to this story. They all want something from him, and they may be able to give him something too.

It is satirical, but it also feels soooo real, half a world and well over a century away. ( )

I have been re-reading His Excellency Eugène Rougon (Son Excellence Eugène Rougon) because I have a lovely new OUP edition, translated by Brian Nelson. I’m not going to review the novel again because I’ve already reviewed the Vizetelly translation as part of my Zola Project (see ANZLitLovers.com) to read the entire Rougon-Marquet series, but I do want to comment about why it’s so much more enjoyable to read a new edition than a freebie from Project Gutenberg.

I admire the whole concept of Project Gutenberg, and I’ve read plenty of their titles that I couldn’t otherwise source. The wonderful team of volunteers at PG have saved many titles from oblivion, and these titles are free, which makes them accessible to all budgets. But there are limitations with some titles, and the Vizetelly translations of Zola’s novels are particularly problematic…

I call them Vizetelly translations, but actually, Vizetelly was the publisher and although Brian Nelson says in his Translator’s Note that His Excellency was translated by Henry Vizetelly’s son Ernest in 1897, Wikipedia says that it’s not known who the translator was. That’s probably just because WP hasn’t caught up with the scholarship, but it is true that Gutenberg editions sometimes don’t #NameTheTranslator because translators weren’t acknowledged in the original editions. In the case of Zola, it may be that anonymity was desired, perhaps by a lady translator, because Zola was considered salacious and as Vizetelly learned to his cost, it wasn’t just risky for a lady’s reputation… there were worse consequences than that.

Henry Vizetelly (1820-94) was fined and imprisoned for three months in 1889 over the publication of La Terre, which was considered offensive. Subsequent editions of all of Zola’s novels were heavily edited by his son Ernest Vizetelly (1853-1922) in order to avoid further prosecutions. (Source: The Books of Émile Zola)

In the case of His Excellency the 1897 translation is after Henry’s gaol term, so it falls into the category of ‘heavily edited’.

So it’s not just that contemporary readers of Vizetelly have to adjust to reading a 19th century English version of 19th century French. It’s also that the novels were self-censored, as it were.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2019/01/19/re-reading-his-excellency-eugene-rougon-by-e... ( )