The Fat and the Thin

What It's About

Originally published as Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris), this is the third novel in the Rougon-Macquart cycle. It is set in and around Les Halles, the vast central market of Second Empire Paris. Florent, a teacher wrongly swept up in the aftermath of the 1851 coup, escapes years of penal exile and returns to the city half-starved. He finds refuge with his half-brother Quenu and Quenu's wife Lisa, who run a thriving pork butcher's shop. Surrounded by mountains of meat, fish, cheese and vegetables, Florent takes a job in the market, but his old political convictions soon draw him into a circle of conspirators.

Key Concepts

The English title points to the novel's central divide between the "Fats", the comfortable, well-fed shopkeepers who prize respectability and security, and the "Thins", the lean idealists and outsiders who unsettle them. Zola treats food as a measure of moral and social health, and the market itself almost becomes a living organism. The book also looks at political idealism set against complacency and self-interest. Its long, sensuous catalogues of produce were much admired, though some readers find them excessive. They are a deliberate part of Zola's naturalist method.

About the Author

Émile Zola (1840–1902) was a French novelist and journalist, and the leading figure of the naturalist movement in literature. He believed fiction should study human behaviour with something like scientific rigour, shaped by heredity and environment. He was also a vocal public intellectual, famous for his open letter defending Alfred Dreyfus.

About This Edition

This is an 1888 translation by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly.