15 h 19 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a hungry idealist enters a world that wants nothing more than to stay well fed?
In Émile Zola’s The Fat and the Thin, an exhausted Florent returns to Paris and finds mountains of food at Les Halles. His younger half brother, Quenu, offers shelter near the markets, where he runs a prosperous pork butcher’s shop. But Quenu’s wife, Lisa, values order and comfort, while Florent carries hopes for a fairer world.
Florent takes work as an inspector in the fish section and enters a neighborhood alive with rivalry, gossip and political talk. Lisa guards her household’s security; the beautiful Normande holds her own among the market women. Around them, Zola makes the markets feel like a vast living body, asking what plenty protects—and where it leaves those who hunger.
What you’ll discover
- Paris before breakfast Enter the markets at dawn, among carts of vegetables, meat and fish.
- An outsider among plenty Follow Florent as his hopes for fairness meet a world devoted to comfort.
- A household worth guarding Meet Lisa, whose capable command of the shop serves her wish for security.
- Rivalry across the stalls Explore a neighborhood where proud market women compete and gossip travels through daily life.
- More than a meal Discover how Zola turns food and appetite into questions about class, principle and power.
Who will love it
For readers who love richly described places, social novels and stories where food and money stand for deeper things. It suits fans of Zola or of Victorian-era fiction.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A thin stranger arrives at dawn
- His brother's shop is warm and well fed
- The markets become a living body
- Florent takes a post and keeps his secrets
- Gossip and rivalry fill the neighborhood
- What the novel says about plenty and principle
Who’s who
- FlorentA thin, idealistic man who returns to Paris after years away and takes shelter with his brother, carrying hopes for a fairer world.
- QuenuFlorent's younger half brother, a good natured pork butcher who loves his shop and his comfort and lets his wife lead.
- LisaQuenu's wife, calm, capable and proud of her prosperous shop, who wants a safe, orderly life for her household.
- Claude LantierA painter and relative of the family who sees the markets as a feast of color and light.
- The beautiful NormandeA lively, handsome fishwife who rivals Lisa in looks and in standing among the market women.
- GavardA poultry seller who likes to talk loudly about politics and enjoys the company of Florent's circle.
- Mademoiselle SagetA sharp-eyed neighborhood gossip who gathers and spreads news about everyone around the markets.
- Madame FrançoisA market gardener who finds the exhausted Florent on the road and brings him to the city on her cart.
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- Audiobook
- 15 h 19 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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El vientre de París
by Émile Zola · 1873
Florent returns to Paris hungry, entering a world of prosperous shops where comfort and principle collide.
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In short
The Fat and the Thin is a novel by Émile Zola, first published in French in 1873 under the title Le Ventre de Paris, which means The Belly of Paris. It is the third book in his Rougon-Macquart cycle, a series of novels that follows one extended family through the years of the Second Empire in France.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A thin stranger arrives at dawn
The novel opens in the early morning in Paris. A cart loaded with vegetables rolls toward the markets, and a man lies exhausted on the road. He is Florent, very thin, worn out and half starved. A market gardener, Madame François, notices him and lets him ride on her cart.
Florent is coming home after a long absence. He was swept away by the politics of the early 1850s and sent far from France to a penal colony. He has escaped, and now he walks into the city he once knew. His body is weak, but his mind is full of memories and plans.
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What is The Fat and the Thin about?
It tells of Florent, a thin man who returns to Paris and lives with his well fed brother's family near the great food markets. The book contrasts comfort and principle, and shows life among the market people.
What does the title The Fat and the Thin mean?
The fat are the comfortable, prosperous shopkeepers who guard their plenty. The thin are those who have known hunger and who hold ideals. The title sets these two kinds of people against each other.
Is The Fat and the Thin the same as The Belly of Paris?
Yes. The Belly of Paris is a literal rendering of Zola's French title, Le Ventre de Paris. The Fat and the Thin is the title under which an early English translation appeared.
The author
Émile Zola
1840–1902 · French novelist
Émile Zola (1840–1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, and poet. He was born in Paris, grew up in Aix-en-Provence, and later lived in Paris and Médan. He wrote Thérèse Raquin (1867), Nana (1880), and Germinal (1885). His twenty-novel series, Les Rougon-Macquart, appeared between 1871 and 1893.
More by Émile Zola
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