The fortune of the Rougons

Les Rougon-Macquart is the collective title given to a cycle of twenty novels by French writer Émile Zola. Subtitled "Natural and social history of a family under the Second Empire", it follows the life of one family during the Second French Empire (1852–1870).

In this tremendous work, Zola first and foremost examines the impact of social environment on men and women, by varying the social, economic, political and professional milieu in which each novel takes place. It provides us with a close look at everyday life, gives us a deep insight into important social changes and it shows us the true people's history of the Second Empire.
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Je veux expliquer comment une famille, un petit groupe d'etres, se comporte dans une societe, en s'epanouissant pour donner naissance a dix, a vingt individus qui paraissent, au premier coup d'oeil, profondement dissemblables, mais que l'analyse montre intimement lies les uns aux autres. L'heredite a ses lois, comme la pesanteur.