Coup d'Etat

of 1851, and Pierre, quick to seize his opportunity, rendered such services to the Bonapartist partyas to
lay the foundation of the family fortune, a foundation which was, however, cemented with treachery
andblood. It was with these two families, then, both descended from a common ancestress, and
sometimessubsequently united by intermarriage, that the whole series of novels was to deal. They do
not form anedifying group, these Rougon-Macquarts, but Zola, who had based his whole theory of the
experimental novelupon the analogy of medical research, was not on the outlook for healthy subjects;
he wanted social sores toprobe. This is a fact much too often overlooked by readers of detached parts of
the series, for it should alwaysbe kept in mind that the whole was written with the express purpose of
laying bare all the social evils of oneof the most corrupt periods in recent history, in the belief that
through publicity might come regeneration.Zola was all along a reformer as well as a novelist, and his
zeal was shown in many a bitter newspapercontroversy. It has been urged against him that there were
plenty of virtuous people about whom he couldhave written, but these critics appear to forget that he
was in a sense a propagandist, and that it was not his

metier

to convert persons already in the odour of sanctity.

La Fortune des Rougon

was not particularly successful on its publication, but in view of the fact that the warwith Germany was
barely concluded no surprise need be experienced. Zola's financial position was, however,by the
arrangement with his publisher now more secure, and he felt justified in marrying. This he did,
andsettled down into the quiet bourgeois existence in which his life was spent.The next book was

La Curee

, a study of the mushroom society of the Second Empire. The subject—the storyof Phaedra adapted to
modern environmentis unpleasant and the treatment is daring; but despite a slight

succes de scandale

, its reception by the public was no more favorable than that of

La Fortune des Rougon

La Curee

was followed by

Le Ventre de Paris

, which reached a second edition. It contained some excellentdescriptive writing, but was severely
attacked by certain critics, who denounced it as the apotheosis of gluttony, while they resented the
transference of a pork butcher's shop to literature and took particularexceptions to a certain "symp