This powerful and unscrupulous ecclesiastic ruthlessly set aside every
obstacle to his purpose, and in the course of his operations wrecked the
home of the Mourets. Marthe having become infatuated with the priest,
ruined her family for him and died neglected. Francois Mouret, her
husband, who by the machinations of Faujas was confined in an asylum as
a lunatic, became insane in fact, and having escaped, brought about
a conflagration in which he perished along with the disturber of his
domestic peace.
The book contains a vivid picture of the petty jealousies and intrigues
of a country town, and of the political movements which followed the
_Coup d'Etat_ of 1851.
Pot-Bouille.
A study of middle-class life in Paris. Octave, the elder son of Francois
Mouret, has come to the city, where he has got a situation in "The
Ladies' Paradise," a draper's shop carried on by Madame Hedouin, a lady
whom he ultimately marries. The interest of the book centres in a house
in Rue de Choiseul which is let in flats to various tenants, the Vabres,
Duvreyiers, and Josserands among others. The inner lives of these
people, their struggles, their jealousies and their sins, are shown
with an unsparing hand.
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