The Rush for the Spoil

What It's About

Set against Baron Haussmann's rebuilding of Paris, the novel follows Aristide Saccard, a shrewd opportunist who uses inside knowledge of planned demolitions to buy, sell and speculate his way to a fortune. His marriage to the wealthy Renée is a financial arrangement, and she is left to fill her idle, extravagant days with fashion, debt and dangerous distractions. When she becomes entangled with Saccard's son Maxime, the household becomes a picture of the age's appetite and corruption. The book is the second in Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle.

Key Concepts

The novel treats the Second Empire as a society that consumes everything, from land and money to people and desire. Zola ties the speculation in property to the speculation in pleasure, so the city's demolition and the family's moral collapse mirror each other. The hothouse heat and lavish interiors recur as images of artificial, overripe living. The book was controversial in its day: its newspaper serialisation in 1871 was cut short amid official objections, and its frank treatment of sexual transgression kept it provocative for English readers.

About the Author

Émile Zola (1840–1902) was a French novelist and journalist, and the leading figure of the naturalist movement, which sought to depict society and human behaviour with scientific detachment. He is also remembered for his public role in defending Alfred Dreyfus.

About This Edition

This is an 1886 translation by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly.