Paris

Émile ZolaProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 1.1M words
Chapters: 109

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Paris by Émile Zola. Author: Zola, Émile, 1840-1902. Language: French. Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese. Release Date: Nov 26, 2010

Editor's review

Paris is the final volume of Zola's Three Cities trilogy, published in the original French and made freely available by Project Gutenberg. The work continues Zola's characteristic social concern and naturalist method, using Paris as its stage to weave the city's vast gap between rich and poor, the conflict between religion and science, and the spiritual quest of idealists into a broad panorama. Its value lies in its literary record of the intellectual ferment of late nineteenth-century France during a period of social transformation; the protagonist's doubt and search still resonate today. Zola's descriptions are meticulous and grounded, and his scene-setting has a strong visual quality, making the book suitable for readers interested in European literature and social history. Because this is a French-language electronic text, readers with some foundation in French are advised to read it alongside annotations or a translation. As a public-domain ebook with low barriers to access, it can serve as course supplementary material or as a primary text for literary research.

Who it's for

A good fit for

French learners with a foundation in reading French who want to study Zola's original work
Readers researching late nineteenth-century French society and naturalist literature
Literature lovers who enjoy urban themes and idea-driven long novels

Not a good fit for

Readers with no ability to read French who do not plan to use a translation
Readers who prefer light, short works and lack patience for long social argument

Reading tips

First learn the outlines of the first two volumes of Zola's Three Cities to grasp the character threads before entering this volume.
Read alongside a Chinese translation, slowing down at passages on religion and science.
Take notes on Paris place names and period background to connect the threads of social history.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or French?

This is the original French edition of Zola's Paris, made freely available by Project Gutenberg, with the main text in French. Readers without French reading ability are advised to read it alongside a Chinese translation or to read introductory materials on the same trilogy first.

Which work of Zola's is it?

Paris is the final volume of Zola's Three Cities trilogy; the first two are Lourdes and Rome. The trilogy revolves around the protagonist's spiritual quest, and this volume moves the setting to Paris, touching on themes such as religion and science and social ideals.

Can the electronic edition be used directly for research citations?

The public-domain electronic text provided by Project Gutenberg can be used for general reading and teaching reference, but academic citations should be checked against authoritative editions and page numbers. It is advisable to rely on print or collated editions as the standard and use the electronic text for searching and reading through.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Émile Zola Author · French · 1840–1902

Émile Zola (1840–1902) was a French novelist, critic and political activist, one of the most prominent French writers of the late nineteenth century and the founder of the theory of naturalism. Through his twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart he constructed a vast social panorama, with representative works including Germinal, L'Assommoir, Au Bonheur des Dames and La Bête humaine. These works often take workers, peasants and ordinary city people as their protagonists, presenting poverty, labour and desire with meticulous observation and an almost documentary style, calm yet powerful. During the Dreyfus Affair Zola published the famous open letter J'Accuse, intervening in public affairs as an intellectual in the cause of justice. The library holds 93 of his works, including several translations.