The descriptions of Paris under
varying atmospheric aspects, with which each section of the book closes,
are wholly admirable.
Le Ventre de Paris.
A study of the teeming life which surrounds the great central markets
of Paris. The heroine is Lisa Quenu, a daughter of Antoine Macquart (_La
Fortune des Rougon_). She has become prosperous, and with prosperity her
selfishness has increased. Her brother-in-law Florent had escaped from
penal servitude in Cayenne and lived for a short time in her house, but
she became tired of his presence and ultimately denounced him to the
police. The book contains vivid pictures of the markets, bursting with
the food of a great city, and of the vast population which lives
by handling and distributing it. "But it also embraces a powerful
allegory," writes Mr. E. A. Vizetelly in his preface to the English
translation (_The Fat and the Thin_. London: Chatto & Windus), "the
prose song of the eternal battle between the lean of this world and the
fat--a battle in which, as the author shows, the latter always come off
successful. M. Zola had a distinct social aim in writing this book.
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