by Émile Zola
Part of Les Rougon-Macquart, book 15
First published 1980
Jean Macquart arrives in Beauce, a farming region where peasant families have cultivated the same plots for centuries. He becomes entangled with the Fouans, a local family consumed by property disputes. Old Man Fouan, resembling Shakespeare's King Lear, divides his holdings among three children. Fanny hoards every penny she can find. The eldest son goes by the nickname Jesus Christ despite his unholy behavior. Buteau, who befriends Macquart, possesses an insatiable appetite for both land and women. When Buteau receives his portion of the inheritance, he declares the division unfair and demands more. In this community where soil means survival, the siblings' competition transforms into vicious animosity. Macquart watches as greed and ignorance poison relationships that should bind the family together. The struggle reveals how the hunger for property can destroy human bonds and corrupt an entire community.
Genres: fiction, family, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, family-conflict
Setting: Beauce
Period: 19th-Century
506 pages · Paperback · Penguin Group USA