20 h 49 minAudiobook14 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 does a priest who has lost his faith owe to a friend who still hopes for a miracle?
In Émile Zola's Lourdes, Pierre Froment joins the pilgrimage from Paris with a private purpose. His childhood friend, Marie de Guersaint, has been paralyzed for years. She believes the Virgin will heal her. Pierre no longer shares her faith, but he wants to stand beside her and see what happens.
The crowded white train carries them into a town of stretchers, hospital rooms, candles, and processions. Nurses, doctors, priests, and sellers of medals surround the sick. Behind the shrine lies Bernadette Soubirous's account of seeing the Virgin Mary. Among these voices, Pierre faces questions about belief, evidence, and the comfort people need when their bodies fail them.
What you’ll discover
- A priest divided Follow Pierre as loyalty to Marie brings his private doubt into the pilgrimage's public life.
- Hope aboard the train Enter carriages where hymns mingle with rattling wheels and the needs of the gravely ill.
- A friendship under strain Feel the quiet pull between Marie's complete trust and Pierre's need to seek the truth.
- A town around belief Move among devoted nurses, busy sellers, and pilgrims gathered before the smoke-darkened Grotto.
- Questions without easy comfort Consider what a miracle means, what faith offers, and how doubt can answer suffering.
Who will love it
For readers who love big social novels, honest questions about belief, and vivid crowds. It speaks to both believers and doubters.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A white train leaves Paris at dawn
- A priest who no longer believes
- Hymns, suffering and sharp-eyed nurses
- Lourdes: a shrine, a town and a crowd
- The story of Bernadette and the Grotto
- Baths, processions and the hunt for cures
- Marie, Pierre and a love that cannot speak
- Faith, science and the need for hope
- How Zola builds a pilgrimage on the page
Who’s who
- Pierre FromentA young priest who has lost his faith but keeps his cassock, he goes to Lourdes to stand beside a friend and to seek the truth.
- Marie de GuersaintA gentle young woman, paralyzed for years, who trusts completely that the Virgin will heal her at Lourdes and who is Pierre's dearest friend.
- Monsieur de GuersaintMarie's affectionate and dreamy father, always full of schemes, who loves his daughter deeply but is easily distracted by the sights of the town.
- Doctor ChassaigneAn old physician long settled at Lourdes, who knows the history of the shrine and offers Pierre a firm belief in its cures.
- Sister HyacintheA calm and devoted nun who cares for the sick on the train and at the hospital, and who gives quiet comfort to those around her.
- Bernadette SoubirousThe poor girl of Lourdes who said she saw the Virgin in 1858, and whose honest, humble story lies behind the whole shrine.
- La GrivotteA consumptive woman on the pilgrim train, weak and coughing, who clings to the hope that Lourdes will give her back her strength.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
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- 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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Lourdes
by Émile Zola · 1894
A priest who has lost his faith travels to Lourdes beside a paralyzed friend who trusts the Virgin will heal her.
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In short
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.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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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.
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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