Serge Mouret, a fervent young priest in a poor Provençal village, falls into fever and is nursed back to health in the Paradou, a vast abandoned estate run wild. There, forgetting his vocation, he wanders the meadows and thickets with Albine, a girl who has grown up as freely as the garden. Zola sets Catholic devotion against the pull of nature in some of his most lush prose.
A strange, sensuous entry in the Rougon-Macquart cycle, with an introduction by Ernest Vizetelly. Download the free EPUB.