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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
Ah, Paris!
City of Lights, City of Squalor... at least for some in the 19th century.
L'Assomomoir follows the adult life of Gervaise Macquart as she traverses several periods of fortune and failure in 1870's Paris.
From being a young bride (first child at 14) to her employment in a Parisian laundry and second marriage, the arc of the novel follows that that of the working poor at that period in the history of France and of the city.
One feels for the triumphs and failures of Gervaise and her family and intimate associates as they traverse their lives in the squalor of the region of the city in which they live and work... eking out boom and bust to support themselves, rejoice in pleasure and decline into destitute poverty.
In this edition, translated by Margaret Mauldon including notes on the text and with a forward by Robert Lethbridge reviewing that text and the surrounding socio-political atmosphere in which the novel was set and which influenced its construction by Zola, I feel one gets a sense of the environment facing the central characters at that point in the history of the Third Republic and the changes and upheavals that were occurring in the 19th century.
I have read a few novels by English authors from that time, but reading this has spurred me to seek out other novels of that period... from France (Victor Hugo) as well as other regions (Russia, other English novelists, other regions of Europe).
City of Lights, City of Squalor... at least for some in the 19th century.
L'Assomomoir follows the adult life of Gervaise Macquart as she traverses several periods of fortune and failure in 1870's Paris.
From being a young bride (first child at 14) to her employment in a Parisian laundry and second marriage, the arc of the novel follows that that of the working poor at that period in the history of France and of the city.
One feels for the triumphs and failures of Gervaise and her family and intimate associates as they traverse their lives in the squalor of the region of the city in which they live and work... eking out boom and bust to support themselves, rejoice in pleasure and decline into destitute poverty.
In this edition, translated by Margaret Mauldon including notes on the text and with a forward by Robert Lethbridge reviewing that text and the surrounding socio-political atmosphere in which the novel was set and which influenced its construction by Zola, I feel one gets a sense of the environment facing the central characters at that point in the history of the Third Republic and the changes and upheavals that were occurring in the 19th century.
I have read a few novels by English authors from that time, but reading this has spurred me to seek out other novels of that period... from France (Victor Hugo) as well as other regions (Russia, other English novelists, other regions of Europe).
"Life's a bitch and then you die." No spoilers, that about sums up the plot of this novel about poverty and alcoholism in 19th-century Paris. Perhaps not the most uplifting read in the middle of a pandemic. I like Zola normally, but I admit to finding it hard going. Not just the depressing subject matter but the long and repetitive depictions of squalor, poverty, despair, violence that afflict every single character. Nobody comes out of it well; life is a bitter competition for resources with little solidarity between people. Let's hope we can be better than this. Not in the mood for a more detailed review ... moving on to something lighter.
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
This book changed my life and set me on a path to becoming an author myself.
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“A heavy man of forty was serving a ten year old girl who had asked him to place four sous' worth of brandy into her cup. A shaft of sunlight came through the entrance to warm the floor which was always damp from the smokers' spitting. From everything, the casks, the bar, the entire room, a liquorish odor arose, an alcoholic aroma which seemed to thicken and befuddle the dust motes dancing in the sunlight.”
The above is but one of the many vivid descriptions in the world of Émile Zola’s L'Assommoir, an urban underbelly of fleshy humanity emitting spit and sweet and stinking of booze; a swarm of filth and grime, grunting, gesticulating, swearing, slobbering. If this sounds like strong stuff, it is the very strong literary stuff of Zola-style naturalism, where we as readers are dragged ever so slowly through the boarding houses, streets and open sewers in the poorest slums of late nineteenth-century Paris.
At the heart of the novel is Gervaise, a young mother abandoned by her lover, who has to fight to earn an honest living as a laundress and starcher. Eventually she marries one Monsieur Coupeau and initially it appears life will be clean, decent and manageable, but her husband starts drinking and thus begins the family’s downward spiral. L’Assommoir translated as The Gin Palace or The Drinking Den or The Dram Shop caused an uproar when first published – too fierce, too brutal, too sordid. Completely unapologetic, Zola simply replied that he wrote about life as it is actually lived among the poor.
Rather than focusing on all the nasty, grimy details, distasteful and disgusting by anybody’s standards, including a scene where a child is being whipped by her drunken father, I read Zola’s work with an eye to what place, if any, literature, music and the arts have in the lives of these poor Parisians. Perhaps surprisingly, there are a number of occasions, noted below, where the men and women in this novel encounter the arts.
After Gervaise and Coupeau’s wedding ceremony, the several men and women of the wedding party pay a visit to the Louvre. When they walk through the Assyrian exhibit they adjudge the gigantic stone figures and monstrous beasts, half cat and half woman, very ugly. Then, when they make their way to the galleries of more modern art, we read, “Centuries of art passed before their bewildered ignorance, the fine sharpness of the early masters, the splendors of the Venetians, the vigorous life, beautiful with light, of the Dutch painters. But what interested them most were the artists who were copying, with their easels planted amongst the people, painting away unrestrainedly." Then the wedding party moves to another room where they encounter Ruben’s Kermesse, and Zola writes, “The ladies uttered faint cries the moment they brought their noses close to the painting. Then, blushing deeply they turned away their heads. The men though kept them there, cracking jokes, and seeking for the coarser details.”
Let’s pause here to reflect on the response of these men and women to the art on display. Is there anything unusual or unexpected in way they interact with the sculptures and paintings? Not really; seeing the ancient art of Assyria as ugly is understandable – they want to see pleasing images, not half-human grotesques. Also, understandable is their focus on the artists copying the great masterpieces rather than the masterpieces themselves – the process of creation is fascinating. Lastly, their visceral reaction to the racy country fête of Ruben is predicable, especially the men enjoying the coarse, sexy details. All this to say, in Zola’s view, members of the lower classes can appreciate art as that art relates to their own lives. True, their viewing isn’t the disinterested objectivity of a refined aesthete or knowing eye of an art historian but that’s no reason to discount the way they value art and make art a part of their lives.
One fine evening, Gervaise hosts a dinner fit for royalty. At this point in the novel, she has put forth great effort to live a life that is a kind of oasis of virtue, industriousness and cleanliness amid the city’s poor. This lavish dinner, complete with fine white linen tablecloth and expertly folded linen napkins, set up in the main room of her very own laundry shop is one of the highpoints of her social life. All those invited voraciously down wine and bread, goose and cake, and then each person takes their turn singing a song. Ah, music, the universal art; no need for instruments or special training -- simply singing songs. And through the singing we are given a glimpse into the soul of each of these poor men and women, quite a moving experience for us as readers.
There are a few more references to the arts: Gervaise’s former lover, Lantier, owns books, teaches Gervaise’s daughter Nana to dance (yes, this is the Nana from Zola’s much read novel) and invites Gervaise to a Café Concert. Also, at one point, bemoaning her bad luck, Gervaise muses about a play she saw where the wife poisoned her much hated husband for the sake of her lover. Additionally, there is also a very important event worth noting, one involving Gervaise’s sixteen year old son, Claude. We read, “An old gentleman at Plassans offered to take the older boy, Claude, and send him to an academy down there. The old man, who loved art, had previously been much impressed by Claude's sketches.” This is a significant detail since in the fictional world of Émile Zola’s social Darwinism people are bound and determined and molded by their social environment; yet, in this case, Zola acknowledges Claude’s artistic talent could develop and be recognized despite his poverty-stricken surroundings. Lucky boy! If I were raised in such squalor, I wish I could be half as lucky. Unfortunately others are not nearly as fortunate or lucky in Zola’s L’Assommoir. Read all about it . . . if you have the stomach, that is.
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes