Reviews

After the ethereal interlude of The Dream, we are back with scheming, ambition, intrigue and distrust with The Conquest Of Plassans. This is the sixth book in #thegreatemilezolareadalong2023 and the 4th in the Rougon- Maquart sequence.

We are back in provincial Plassans from where the family sprang in The Fortune Of The Rougons.

Abbé Faujas arrives in the town and comes to lodge, with his mother in the house of Francois Mouret and his wife Martha. Martha is daughter of Félicité Rougon and soon falls under the Abbé’s spell along with the rest of the women of the town.

Faujas is not what he seems, he is ambitious and unscrupulous and infiltrates the town, conquering all aspects of it. He is quite a simmering and dark character, there is a lot of foreboding language used in the descriptions of him that make you feel that he is not to be trusted. Francois doesn’t like him, and he is the only one, gradually all seem to worship at the altar of Faujas, leaving Francois in ruins. Faujas’ relatives the Trouches arrive and insinuate themselves into the Mourets house too. I have to say they are just hideous people!

This book is solid, it’s quite pacy, and it made me feel a bit voyeuristic reading about this conniving man getting his claws into every aspect of life in Plassans. Félicité Rougon is back and as awful as ever but has a much more minor role to play. I felt uncomfortable at times, like watching an accident in slow motion, the total disintegration of the Mourets is hard to read and to bear. Especially when Desiree is sent away, Faujas seems to glide along above all the chaos that is happening beneath and slowly the Mourets totally fall apart.

‘We want to bring in the ones who have gone astray. To make disciples, in a word, don’t we?’

Cruelty develops and it’s not different today, cliques form, lining up against the weak, influencing and gaslighting even. This I think is the best so far, a hard hitting read but addictive, Zola is riding high!

Pot Luck next…

akashara's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

3.0

okenwillow's review against another edition

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4.0

Retrouvailles avec « Mimile », mon amour de jeunesse. Ayant acquis à la fois un ebook et l'intégralité des Rougon-Macquart dans la foulée, je n'ai plus d'excuse pour ne pas finir la série de l'un des auteurs morts responsable de mon addiction à la lecture.
La conquête de Plassans n'est clairement pas mon préféré, il reste difficile de rivaliser avec Germinal, Nana, La bête humaine, L'Assommoir ou Le docteur Pascal, pour ne citer que ceux qui m'ont le plus marquée.
Toutefois, j'ai retrouvé avec un plaisir certain l'univers cruel et fataliste des Rougon-Macquart.

François Mouret est marié à Marthe, sa cousine, et le couple vit paisiblement avec ses trois enfants de ses rentes d'anciens commerçants. Les deux époux se ressemblent et vivent en une relative harmonie, jusqu'au jour où Mouret loue l'étage à un abbé et sa vieille mère. Les deux arrivants ne paient pas de mine dans leurs vêtements défraichis, et portent sur eux l'austérité et la misère. Aussi discret que mystérieux, l'abbé Faujas traîne derrière lui une réputation assez trouble pour attiser les rumeurs. Mouret, peu enclin aux bondieuseries, accueille ce locataire d'un œil amusé, avant d'être intrigué et de se mettre à l'espionner.

Au fil des mois, la famille Mouret se rapprochera subtilement de l'abbé Faujas, jusqu'à transformer la vie jusque-là paisible de la maisonnée. Les intentions de l'abbé ne sont jamais claires, on ne le voit pas tellement manœuvrer directement, Zola décrit plus l'environnement de l'abbé et les autres personnages de Plassans que le curé lui-même, qui finalement mène son monde avec tant de sournoiserie et de subtilité qu'on le croirait presque porté par l'admiration que lui vouent les femmes, les jeunes, et les bourgeois ambitieux.

Marthe Mouret et sa mère seront ses premières victimes. La nature fragile et impressionnable de Marthe la poussera à se soumettre face au charisme de Faujas, homme fort et viril, sévère, mais représentant d'une justice et d'un hypothétique bonheur divins. La jeune femme, inconsciemment insatisfaite de son mariage, sombrera assez vite dans un mysticisme hystérique (pléonasme !), croyant trouver en Dieu un épanouissement absolu, et sera entièrement dévouée à Dieu et à l'abbé, tandis que sa mère Félicité, participera à l'ascension lente, mais sûre de l'abbé, non sans un certain intérêt personnel.

L'abbé mettra à ses pieds tout un groupe de femmes dévotes pour arriver à ses fins et améliorer son image d'austère religieux soucieux de faire de bonnes actions. La maison des Mouret, occupée par l'abbé, sa mère, mais aussi par sa sœur et son beau-frère, va changer progressivement, mais radicalement d'ambiance... et de propriétaires. Fataliste face au changement de comportement de sa femme, Mouret sombrera dans une sorte de dépression, et se mettra en retrait, abandonnant son statut de chef de famille. Marthe quant à elle, s'enfoncera encore plus dans sa dévotion, avant de réaliser, trop tard, le terrible cours qu'auront pris les événements.

De prime abord tout à fait sains d'esprit, Marthe et François seront trahis par leur hérédité, la faille originelle de leur grand-mère commune, Adélaide Fouque, ressurgissant au gré des contrariétés de leur déchéance.
Zola met en scène toute une partie de la population aisée de Plassans, où chacun tente de se faire une place.
Il critique la religion et la politique, et nous démontre les rapports entre les deux, le but commun des religieux et des politiques étant le pouvoir.
Une histoire qui commence dans la quiétude d'une sympathique famille unie, et qui finit dans la tragédie la plus totale.
Un excellent Zola, qui illustre bien la noirceur et la perfidie dont est capable l'homme quand il s'agit de pouvoir et de reconnaissance, ainsi que la crédulité maladive de l'humain face à la religion.

burritapal_1's review

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dark funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

" . . . while Zola may be fascinated by the Rougons' and the Macquart's energy and resourcefulness, it is clear that they are not a sympathetic crew. We admire them as we might admire rats or cockroaches: for being ruthless, tenacious, parasitical, tough, and indestructible. .

" faujas, whose name contains the French for 'false,' faux, is a strict and unmaterialistic priest who installs himself in the Mouret house and makes it his Center of operations. Faujas is the cuckoo in the nest, and the mouret's House and Garden are chosen because they lie between two opposing political camps that faujas must reconcile in order to put forward his masters' candidate for election. This candidate, revealed towards the end of the book, is to be a Yes-Man who, when elected, votes with the majority and thus helps maintain the status quo. But there is no status quo for the novel itself, which Powers towards its terrible ending. The mouret's lose their reputation, their children, their sanity, and finally their property, which has become the symbolic Battleground on which the human and political drama is played out.... "

". . . Every novel in the cycle connects up to the others, but each is also independent, and can be read alone. Characters or branches of the family can be promoted from walk on Parts in one book to full-blown centrality in another; they can fade into the background, be mentioned only in passing, or not appear at all, and then they and their offspring can suddenly emerge as the focal point of a novel of their own. . . . "
-Patrick McGuinness, introduction

When Abbe Faujus first comes to the mouret's house, mouret is looking out of Abbé Faujas's window with him, showing him the neighbors in there neighboring terraces:
" '...the rastoils go to church. You must have seen the mother and daughters at Saint-saturnin. They are your parishioners... those poor girls! Angéline, the eldest, is well over 26; the other one, Aurélie, will soon be 24. And they're no beauties, with their sallow faces and sulky looks. The worst thing is that the Elder of the two has to be married off first. They will find someone in the end, because of the dowry... As for the mother, that fat little woman who walks along as docilely as a sheep, she gives poor old rastoil a hard time.' "

Abbé Faujas goes to madame Rougon's Thursday salon for the first time, and everybody's gossiping about him. He sat in a chair in front of the fire, and the back of the chair is high so nobody can see he's sitting there. He hears the two Rastoil girls gossiping about him:
" 'so what did he do in Besançon, this priest that everybody's talking about?'
'I don't rightly know,' replied the other girl, 'I think he almost strangled the priest-in-charge in a quarrel. Papa also says that he got mixed up in some big industrial Affair that went wrong.'
The two girls' chatter made a sweat breakout on Abbé Faujas's forehead. He didn't bat an eyelid. His mouth tightened, his cheeks took on a leaden hue. Now he could hear the whole Salon talking about the priest he had strangled, about the corruption he had been involved in...."

Madame Rougon scolds him, saying he acted wrongly, saying he needs to get the women on his side if he wants to conquer plassans. She tells him not to show up at any of her salons for a while.

The Mouret is not a religious family; none of them go to church. But for some reason Madame Mouret falls under the spell of Abbé Faujass. She starts going to church. SHe and Abbé Faujas decide to work together to create a place where young girls can go to stay out of trouble.
"... Marthe was at Liberty to tell the priest about the progress she had made. She was happy as a little girl, still excited by the afternoon that she had spent out of her house. The priest made her go over some details again; he promised to go and see monsieur delangre, although he would have preferred to remain completely out of the picture.
" 'you were wrong to mention my name straight away like that,' He said to her brusquely, seeing her so excited and open with him. 'but you are like all women, even the noblest causes are ruined when they get hold of them.' "
so right away this priest character is showing his misogyny. Before this I felt sorry for him, because of all the town gossiping about him. After this, no way.

The priest in charge at San-Saturnin has been ill for a while, and Abbé Bourette has been doing his duties and is expecting to take his place. This priest is a good man; he never even gets angry when Abbé Faujas abuses him.
Faujas goes to see monsignor the bishop in charge of the diocese, about gettingtheposition newly vacated:
" 'You gave me your word, monsignor.'
'of course, of course... poor compan was getting sicker every day, you came and confided things to me. So I promised, I don't deny it... well listen, I shall tell you everything so that you can't accuse me of spinning around like a weathercock. You claim that the minister was very keen to see you appointed priest-in-charge of Saint-Saturnin. Well, I wrote, I got information, one of my friends went to the minister's office. They almost laughed in his face, they told him that they hadn't heard of you. The minister absolutely refused to protect you, do you hear! If you like, I will show you a letter in which it is evident that he views your conduct with extreme seriousness.'
and he stretched out and fumbled in the drawer; but Abbé Faujas had got to his feet without shifting his eyes from The Bishop's face, with a smile that was faintly ironic and pitying.
'Oh, monsignor, monsignor!' He murmured.
Then after a silence, not willing to explain himself further, he went on:
'I release you from your promise, monsignor. Please believe me that in all this I was working even more for your good than for mine. Afterwards when it's too late, you will remember my warnings.' "
so now he's threatening the bishop. And we are finding out that Faujus is a puppet for ministers in paris, namely Eugene Rougon Madame Rougon's son, sent to affect the next election vote in Plassans.

Madame Faujas, Abbé Faujas's mother and the priest take over the Mouret's house. They are now dining every day with the couple. Marthe's gone more and more from the house, fallen under the spell of religion. In fact, she never even takes care of their daughter Desiree, who is slow-minded. Monsieur Mouret sends Desiree to the country, with her nurse. Their other son Serge is enrolled in a seminary, his desire is to become a priest. Abbé Faujas has a sister and a Lowlife husband, who come to stay in another room on the same floor in the mouret's house. They are slowly selling off bits and pieces of the Mouret household, to pay off their considerable debts.
At this point the reader is feeling anguish about the Mouret household. It's absolutely falling apart.

I knew sooner or later this would happen: Marthe confessing her love to Abbé Faujas:
" 'you know everything, don't you?' She ended, with a stammer. 'I am a poor thing, I have sinnex for you... but give me life, give me joy, and I will enter into the Divine happiness you promised me without any remorse.'
'you are a liar,' the priest said slowly. 'I know nothing, I was unaware you had committed this crime.'
It was her turn to recoil, her hands together, faltering, fixing terrified Eyes Upon him. Then, raging, almost fainting, she whispered:
'listen, Ovide, I love you and you know it, don't you? I loved you the moment you arrived... I didn't tell you. I could see that you didn't want that. But I knew very well that you guessed my feelings. I was satisfied, I hoped one day we could be happy, in a union that was divine... so it was for you that I emptied the house. I crawled on my knees for you and was your handmaiden... you surely cannot be cruel to the very last. You have consented to everything, you allowed me to be yours, to cast aside the obstacles that separated us. Remember all this, I beg you. Now that I am ill, abandoned, my heart bruised and my head empty, you cannot rebuff me.. we have not spoken of it in so many words, I know. But my love spoke for me and your silence answered. It's the man I am talking to, not the priest. You said there was just a man here - well, I am talking to that man... I love you, Ovide, I love you, and I am dying because of it.'
She was sobbing. Abbé Faujas Had pulled himself up to his full height. He drew nearer to Marthe and let her feel the full force of his contempt for women.
'Oh, wretched flesh!' he said. 'I was hoping you would see reason, that you would never come to speak of the shameful, filthy things.. yes, it's the Everlasting struggle of evil against the power of the will. You are the Temptation from below, the weakness, the fall. A priest has no other adversary but you and you should be driven out of the church, impure and Damned as you are.' "

At this point the reader is almost shuddering with the chaos this character is exuding. But never fear, Zola makes this character pay in the end. Burn, baby, burn." . . . while Zola may be fascinated by the Rougons' and the Macquart's energy and resourcefulness, it is clear that they are not a sympathetic crew. We admire them as we might admire rats or cockroaches: for being ruthless, tenacious, parasitical, tough, and indestructible. .

berenilde's review

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

karlpopperfanaccount's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I had to read in 10th grade, and it was really interesting. Let's just be realistic : it is a Zola, so there are a lot of information and description, but that is what makes it so interesting. The author executed a real journalist's work, and he did it well.
Was read in its original language.

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