Eugène Rougon, a powerful minister of Napoleon III, resigns from office and waits in retirement while his clamouring band of hangers-on schemes for his return. Recalled to power, he rules with an iron hand, but the beautiful and ambitious Clorinde Balbi, whom he desired and refused to marry, has her own plans for revenge.
Zola’s political novel of the imperial court, a vivid study of ambition and patronage. Download the free EPUB.