The Dream

Émile ZolaProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.6

Word count: 492K words
Chapters: 50

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.The Dream by Émile ZolaAuthor: Zola, Émile, 1840-1902,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Apr 27, 2006

Editor's review

Zola's The Dream holds a distinctive place in the Rougon-Macquart series. It lacks the fierce social criticism of Germinal or Nana, turning instead to the tension between faith, aspiration, and reality. The novel centers on the young girl Angélique, who grows up amid the atmosphere of church stained glass and saints' legends, staking her whole life on a distant dream. Zola depicts everyday life in a provincial town with his meticulous naturalist technique, while letting religious imagination and a young girl's inner world permeate each other, creating a texture that is almost fairy-tale-like yet tinged with bitterness. For readers familiar with Zola's socially engaged works, this book reveals another side of his handling of the inner life and symbolic subjects; for those new to nineteenth-century French literature, its moderate length and focused plot make it relatively easy to enter. While reading, note how the author uses setting and objects to suggest the characters' psychological direction, and the complex resonance of the theme of "the dream" at the ending.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Zola and the Rougon-Macquart series who wish to complete their reading of the cycle
Those who enjoy the religious atmosphere and the depiction of a young girl's psychology in nineteenth-century French literature
Literary scholars interested in how a naturalist writer handles themes of faith and fantasy
General readers looking for a classic novel of moderate length with a focused plot

Not a good fit for

Zola readers expecting intense social conflict and critical plotlines
Those who prefer fast-paced narrative and find extensive environmental and psychological description hard to accept
Readers with little interest in religious themes and the background of saints' legends

Reading tips

Read a page or two of the text first to get a feel for the rhythm of the language, then decide whether to read it straight through, so as not to be put off by the slow opening.
While reading, note the recurring images of the church, stained glass, and embroidery; they are linked to the characters' psychological changes.
After finishing, revisit the ending and reflect on the tension between the fulfillment and disillusionment of "the dream," then compare it with other works by Zola.

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

Which novel in Zola's series is this book?

The Dream is one installment of Zola's Rougon-Macquart series, but its character differs from socially critical works such as Germinal and Nana, leaning more toward faith, aspiration, and the inner world of a young girl. You need not finish the whole series first; it can be understood on its own.

How difficult is the English edition to read?

This is an English public-domain translation provided by Project Gutenberg. Zola's original descriptions are fairly detailed, and the English translation retains considerable environmental and psychological description, with sentences that are not especially short. Readers with a certain foundation in English reading and an ear for nineteenth-century literary prose will find it smoother; beginners may wish to slow down.

Why is it recommended to pay attention to the imagery in the book?

Objects such as the church, stained glass, and embroidery recur throughout the novel, forming both the everyday background of provincial life and hinting at the characters' faith and fantasies. Noting how these images recur helps in understanding Angélique's psychological changes and the meaning of the theme of "the dream" at the ending.

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.