How many novels make up Emile Zola’s Rougon-Macquart cycle?

The Rougon-Macquart

The Rougon-Macquart cycle is a series of 20 novels written by Émile Zola, considered one of the greatest French naturalist writers of the 19th century.

Written during the Second Empire, the cycle follows the lives of the Rougon-Macquarts, a fictional family created by Zola to explore the effects of heredity and social environment on individuals. The literary movement of naturalism, to which Zola adheres, uses an experimental approach, seeking to observe the world as it is, much like the experimental method in medicine. Zola sought to depict social life and the relationships between individuals in a realistic and meticulous way, focusing on the physical, psychological and social descriptions of his characters.

The first Rougon-Macquart novel is La Fortune des Rougon, followed by La Curée, Le Ventre de Paris, La Conquête de Plassans, La Faute de l’abbé Mouret, Son Excellence Eugène Rougon, L’Assommoir, Une page d’amour, Nana, Pot-Bouille, Au Bonheur des Dames, La Joie de vivre, Germinal, L’Œuvre, La Terre, Le Rêve, La Bête humaine, L’Argent, La Débâcle and finally Le Docteur Pascal. Each of these novels focuses on one or more members of the Rougon-Macquart family, who evolve in a different social milieu, thus touching on various aspects of 19th-century French society.

Among these novels, L’Assommoir was one of the most famous, tackling the theme of alcoholism in the working class. Germinal, meanwhile, is an epic novel about the lives of coal miners. La Bête humaine describes the influence of heredity on human behavior. Finally, Le Docteur Pascal brings the family saga to a close, exploring the implications of the evolution of experimental medicine on the understanding of heredity.

The Rougon-Macquart cycle exerted a major influence on naturalist and realist writers of the time, such as Flaubert, Maupassant, Daudet, Mirbeau and Huysmans. Zola’s naturalist style also influenced painters of the period, including Courbet, Manet and Cézanne, who adopted realist elements in their works.

The Rougon-Macquart cycle is a monumental and captivating novelistic fresco that explores human nature from a naturalistic and realistic angle. Zola claims the title of French naturalist, and succeeds in creating a masterpiece that has marked the history of French literature and left a lasting imprint on culture. The meticulous descriptions, naturalistic approach and realistic elements make Les Rougon-Macquart a monumental work, a must for literature lovers.