The Fortune of Rougon is the first novel component magnificent saga of the Rougon-Macquart. This book sets the tone: power, conspiracy, cruelty ... Everything starts with Adelaide Fouque, nicknamed Tante Dide, psychologically frail woman who had a child, Pierre Rougon, from a previous marriage and two children of an adulterous liaison, Antoine and Ursule Macquart. Both families will follow different paths: that of power, money for Rougon; that of poverty, degradation for Macquart. But we are only at the beginning in this first novel Zola pose one by one his characters, detailing their biography, socio-economic context in which they live, their friendly relations, family. The Fortune of Rougon is a real study of man, a scientific study since Zola likes to study with real acuity psychology of this unnatural family. The original sin of Adelaide Fouque (his madness, its fragility) will spread like poison indeed in all his offspring, fatally marking the destiny of many of her children and grandchildren. The Fortune of Rougon is an incredible work, where the burlesque mingle with the epic, where the innocence and beauty of youth is sacrificed by greed and ferocity of bourgeois of Plassans. Behind this family drama, it is the history of France that Zola tells us that of the Republic violated by the bloody coup of Napoleon, coup that gave birth to the Second Empire. Hopefully this wonderful novel makes you want to read more adventures of the family Rougon-Macquart. You will not be disappointed ...
