Orphaned young, Pauline Quenu is sent with her inheritance to live with the Chanteau family in a crumbling seaside village between the Orne and Grandcamp. Her cousin Lazare drifts from scheme to scheme while haunted by a terror of death, and the household slowly spends her money as Pauline’s generosity holds everyone together.
A quieter, ironically titled entry in the Rougon-Macquart cycle, and one of Zola’s most searching studies of goodness and despair. Download the free EPUB.