The Fortune of the Rougons

Émile Zola (1840 - 1902)
Translated by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly (1853 - 1922)

The Fortune of the Rougons (French: La Fortune des Rougon), originally published in 1871, is the first novel in Émile Zola's monumental twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. In his introduction Zola indicates that this series is intended to demonstrate the interaction of heredity and environment along the lines of natural selection and evolution. While Zola's metascience is questionable, this novel is successful in its analysis of the interaction of momentous social and political events and the everyday lives and aspirations of a provincial society. In a satisfyingly intricate, vast and integrated plot, set in the time of Napoleon III's coup d'etat and establishment of the Second Empire, the fates and fortunes of the disparate descendents of one Provencal family are traced in detail. The novel ranges from idyll to cynical observation of base motives, and ends in a way that anticipates its many sequels. Summary by the soloist.

Genre(s): Historical Fiction

Language: English

Group: Les Rougon-Macquart

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 00 Introduction and Author's Preface Peter Tucker
00:15:23
Play 01 Chapter 1, Part 1 Peter Tucker
00:35:30
Play 02 Chapter 1, Part 2 Peter Tucker
00:39:04
Play 03 Chapter 2, Part 1 Peter Tucker
00:48:31
Play 04 Chapter 2, Part 2 Peter Tucker
00:45:58
Play 05 Chapter 3, Part 1 Peter Tucker
00:46:09
Play 06 Chapter 3, Part 2 Peter Tucker
00:56:16
Play 07 Chapter 4, Part 1 Peter Tucker
00:54:43
Play 08 Chapter 4, Part 2 Peter Tucker
01:07:09
Play 09 Chapter 5, Part 1 Peter Tucker
01:00:11
Play 10 Chapter 5, Part 2 Peter Tucker
00:41:44
Play 11 Chapter 5, Part 3 Peter Tucker
00:41:57
Play 12 Chapter 6, Part 1 Peter Tucker
01:02:12
Play 13 Chapter 6, Part 2 Peter Tucker
01:03:27
Play 14 Chapter 6, Part 3 Peter Tucker
01:01:47
Play 15 Chapter 7 Peter Tucker
00:54:06