It deals with the shady underwoods
of the financial world.
Mr. E. A. Vizetelly, in his preface to the English translation (_Money_.
London: Chatto & Windus), suggests that Zola in sketching Saccard,
that daring and unscrupulous financier, "must have bethought himself of
Mires, whose name is so closely linked to the history of Second Empire
finance. Mires, however, was a Jew, whereas Saccard was a Jew-hater, and
outwardly, at all events, a zealous Roman Catholic. In this respect he
reminds one of Bontoux, of Union General notoriety, just as Hamelin the
engineer reminds one of Feder, Bontoux's associate. Indeed, the history
of M. Zola's Universal Bank is much the history of the Union General.
The latter was solemnly blessed by the Pope, and in a like way Zola
shows us the Universal receiving the Papal benediction. Moreover, the
second object of the Union General was to undermine the financial power
of the Jews, and in the novel we find a similar purpose ascribed to
Saccard's Bank. The union, we know, was eventually crushed by the great
Israelite financiers, and this again is the fate which overtakes
the institution whose meteor-like career is traced in the pages of
_L'Argent_.
Pages:
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63