Résumé
Résumé de Lourdes
À qui s’adresse-t-il ?
For readers who love big social novels, honest questions about belief, and vivid crowds. It speaks to both believers and doubters.
De quoi parle ce livre ?
Lourdes is a novel by Émile Zola, published in 1894. It is the first book of a trilogy called The Three Cities, followed by Rome and Paris. Zola visited the shrine in the south of France in 1891 and watched the great August pilgrimage with his own eyes. He was a man of science and no friend of the Church, yet he wrote about the pilgrims with pity and close attention.
The story follows Pierre Froment, a young French priest who has lost his faith but still wears the cassock. He joins the national pilgrimage from Paris to Lourdes, the town where, in 1858, a poor girl named Bernadette Soubirous said she saw the Virgin Mary in a grotto. Pierre goes for a private reason. A childhood friend, Marie de Guersaint, has been paralyzed for years, and she believes the Virgin will heal her. He wants to stand beside her and see what happens.
Around these two Zola gathers a crowd of the sick, the nurses, the priests, the doctors and the sellers of candles and medals. You will ride the crowded white train, enter the hospital rooms, and stand at the Grotto among thousands of voices. The book asks what a miracle is, what a believer needs, and what a doubter owes to the suffering. Let us begin on the platform in Paris, where the train waits.
Dans ce résumé
- 1A white train leaves Paris at dawnFree
- 2A priest who no longer believes
- 3Hymns, suffering and sharp-eyed nurses
- 4Lourdes: a shrine, a town and a crowd
- 5The story of Bernadette and the Grotto
- 6Baths, processions and the hunt for cures
- 7Marie, Pierre and a love that cannot speak
- 8Faith, science and the need for hope
- 9How Zola builds a pilgrimage on the page
Point clé 1 sur 9
A white train leaves Paris at dawn
The novel opens on the pilgrim train that leaves Paris for Lourdes. It is called the white train, because the cars set aside for the gravely ill are painted that color. Zola does not begin with a hero. He begins with a moving world of cars, benches and stretchers, packed with people who have run out of other hopes.
In one carriage are the sick, laid out on narrow beds or propped on cushions. Some have wasting diseases, some have wounds that never close, and some are children. Their families sit near them, thin with worry, carrying small bags and long prayers. Volunteer nurses, many of them ladies from good Paris families, move up and down the swaying cars with basins and cups.
Among the passengers is Pierre Froment, a priest of about thirty. He sits among the pilgrims as one of them, but he does not feel like one. Near him lies Marie de Guersaint, a young woman he has known since they were children. Her legs have been useless for years, and she lies quietly, with a calm in her face that Pierre finds both lovely and hard to bear.
Marie's father, Monsieur de Guersaint, is also on the train. He is a gentle, dreamy man who has spent his life on grand schemes and inventions that never quite work. He is kind, easily moved and easily distracted, and he supplies some of the book's lightest and saddest humor. His love for his daughter is plain, even when his judgment is poor.
By opening on the train, Zola tells us what kind of book this will be. It is a book about a mass of people, each with a private wound, all pulled toward one small place in the Pyrenees. The wheels beat on, the prayers begin, and the reader is already inside the pilgrimage.
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
- Pierre Froment
- A young priest who has lost his faith, Pierre accompanies his childhood friend Marie on pilgrimage.
- Marie de Guersaint
- Pierre's dearest friend, Marie is a paralyzed young woman who believes the Virgin will heal her.
- Monsieur de Guersaint
- Marie's affectionate, dreamy father loves his daughter deeply but is easily distracted by the town's sights.
- Doctor Chassaigne
- A physician settled at Lourdes, Doctor Chassaigne tells Pierre the shrine's history and believes in its cures.
- Sister Hyacinthe
- A devoted nun, Sister Hyacinthe cares for the sick pilgrims on the train and at the hospital.
- Bernadette Soubirous
- A poor local girl whose reported visions established the shrine, Bernadette shapes the history Pierre encounters.
- La Grivotte
- A consumptive woman traveling with the pilgrims, La Grivotte hopes the shrine will restore her strength.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 187,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 12 h 30 min
- Listening time20 h 50 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 11 other languages
Questions about Lourdes
What is Lourdes by Zola about?
It follows Pierre Froment, a priest who has lost his faith, on a national pilgrimage from Paris to Lourdes. He goes to watch over a paralyzed friend, Marie, and meets the sick, the nurses, the doctors and the crowds of the shrine.
Is Lourdes by Zola a true story?
The main characters are invented, but the setting is real. Zola visited Lourdes in 1891 and studied the pilgrimage closely. The history of Bernadette Soubirous and the apparitions of 1858 are based on real events.
Is Lourdes part of a series?
Yes. It is the first novel of Zola's trilogy The Three Cities, followed by Rome and Paris. All three follow Pierre Froment as he searches for faith, truth and a way to help the poor.
Who was Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes?
Bernadette was a poor girl of Lourdes who said she saw the Virgin Mary in a grotto in 1858. Zola retells her story through Doctor Chassaigne and shows how her private vision became a great shrine.
Is Lourdes by Zola hard to read?
It asks serious questions about faith and science. The prose is clear and the scenes are vivid, so readers find it absorbing and humane.