Resumen
Resumen de La jauría
Para quién es
For readers who love social panoramas, stories of money and ambition, and nineteenth century Paris. It also welcomes anyone curious about Zola's portraits of greed, desire and family life.
De qué trata este libro
A coup builds an empire, and an empire builds a city that devours its own people. Émile Zola's The Rush for the Spoil, published in book form in 1872, is the second novel in his Rougon-Macquart cycle, which follows one family through the Second Empire. His stage is the rebuilding of Paris. At its centre stand Aristide Saccard, a ruthless speculator, his young wife Renée, who lives for silk and jewels, and his idle son Maxime. Money pours in and out, and hunger pulls the family apart.
En este resumen
- 1The new Paris parades in the BoisFree
- 2Aristide seeks a share of power
- 3Speculators carve up the city
- 4Renée lives for dresses and display
- 5The hothouse where feeling grows wild
- 6A masquerade ball and a living picture
- 7Debts mount and a marriage is planned
- 8What the book says about greed and desire
- 9How Zola tells it with colour and heat
Idea clave 1 de 9
The new Paris parades in the Bois
The novel opens on a fine afternoon in the Bois de Boulogne. Carriages roll along the avenues in a glittering line. In one of them sit Renée and her stepson Maxime, returning from the fashionable hour of display.
Every passing carriage is a small announcement of wealth. Renée is bored in the middle of this splendour, and she looks for something she cannot name. She talks with Maxime like a friend of the same age, and an odd ease lies between them.
Then Zola steps back in time. He asks how a family came to live like this, and the answer begins with the first months of a new regime. That is where the money starts.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Aristide Saccard
- Renée's husband and Maxime's father, he uses inside knowledge of urban rebuilding to enrich himself through property speculation.
- Renée
- Saccard's young wife and Maxime's stepmother, she surrounds herself with luxurious clothes while seeking relief from boredom.
- Maxime
- Saccard's idle son and Renée's stepson, he shares her fashionable world and pursues pleasure with little sense of responsibility.
- Sidonie
- Saccard's sister works as a discreet intermediary, arranging financial deals and marriages through her network of contacts.
- Louise de Mareuil
- A clever young heiress, she attracts Saccard's interest because her substantial dowry promises another source of wealth.
- Larsonneau
- Saccard's business associate helps him manipulate property transactions involving houses marked for demolition during the rebuilding.
- Worms
- Renée's fashionable dressmaker supplies the elaborate gowns that sustain her public appearance and generate increasingly burdensome bills.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 121,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 8 h 5 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 11 other languages
Questions about La jauría
What is The Rush for the Spoil about?
It follows the speculator Aristide Saccard, his wife Renée and his son Maxime in Paris under Napoleon III. Saccard grows rich from the rebuilding of the city, while his household sinks into debt, display and forbidden desire.
What does La Curée mean?
In hunting, the curée is the moment when the hounds are given their share of the killed animal. Zola uses the word for speculators tearing at the body of old Paris as it is rebuilt.
Is La Curée part of the Rougon-Macquart series?
Yes, it is the second of the twenty Rougon-Macquart novels. The series follows one family through the Second Empire, and Aristide Saccard is a member of the Rougon branch who later returns in other books.
Is The Rush for the Spoil based on real events?
The story is set in Paris during the Second Empire. Zola drew on the actual rebuilding of Paris under Haussmann and on the habits of speculators and the court circle of the Second Empire.
What is the greenhouse in La Curée a symbol of?
The hothouse stands for feeling forced into bloom in unhealthy heat. Its thick air, strange plants and rot match the mood of the house and the unnatural bond that grows inside it.