The priest of the Lourdes book goes to Rome with a manuscript on the Index, believing that the Church can be persuaded to stand with the poor, and spends three months in antechambers learning what the Vatican is. Zola went there himself in 1894 and asked for an audience with Leo XIII, which was refused. The city is drawn as an archaeology of power, and the audience with the Pope is the coldest scene he ever wrote.
Englisch
Thérèse Raquin
Germinal
Germinal : A Coal Strike in Northern France
Abbé Mouret's Transgression : A Young Priest Between Faith and Nature
Lourdes : Five Days on the White Train
The Rush for the Spoil : Speculation in Haussmann's Paris
His Masterpiece : A Painter Defeated by His Own Canvas
The Joy of Life : A Novel of Kindness and Its Cost
L'Assommoir : A Laundress and Drink in the Goutte-d'Or
His Excellency : A Minister of the Second Empire
The Soil : A Beauce Farm Divided Among Children