Doctor Pascal (Le Docteur Pascal) is the twentieth and final novel of the Rougon-Macquart series by Émile Zola, first published in June 1893 by Charpentier. Zola's plan for the Rougon-Macquart novels was to show how heredity and environment worked on the members of one family over the course of the Second Empire. He wraps up his heredity theories in this novel. Le Docteur Pascal is furthermore essentially a story about science versus faith. The novel begins in 1872, after the fall of the Second Empire and the end of the reign of Emperor Napoleon III. The title character, Pascal Rougon (b.…mehr
Doctor Pascal (Le Docteur Pascal) is the twentieth and final novel of the Rougon-Macquart series by Émile Zola, first published in June 1893 by Charpentier. Zola's plan for the Rougon-Macquart novels was to show how heredity and environment worked on the members of one family over the course of the Second Empire. He wraps up his heredity theories in this novel. Le Docteur Pascal is furthermore essentially a story about science versus faith. The novel begins in 1872, after the fall of the Second Empire and the end of the reign of Emperor Napoleon III. The title character, Pascal Rougon (b. 1813), is the son of Pierre and Félicité Rougon, whose rise to power in the fictional town of Plassans is detailed in the first novel of the series La fortune des Rougon.
French author, journalist, dramatist, and founder of the naturalism literary movement, Émile Zola also wrote plays. He played a significant role in both Alfred Dreyfus' exoneration and the political liberalisation of France. Dreyfus had been wrongfully charged and imprisoned as an army commander. In 1901 and 1902, Zola was a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Zola was born in Paris on April 2, 1840, to François Zola and Émile Aubert. Before becoming a writer, he was a law student who twice failed the baccalaureate. In his formative years, Zola produced a large number of short stories, essays, plays, and novels. Hachette fired Zola from his position as director of the Paris Opera in 1864 after the release of his scandalous autobiographical book La Confession de Claude (1865), which attracted the attention of the authorities. Zola became a citizen of France in 1862. He met the seamstress Éléonore-Alexandrine Meley, also known as Gabrielle, in 1865, and she eventually became his mistress. On September 29, 1902, Francois Zola died from carbon monoxide poisoning brought on by a poorly ventilated chimney. At the time of his death, he was working on the sequel to his recently published book Vérité, which is about the Dreyfus trial.
Inhaltsangabe
Introduction Translator's Note Select Bibliography A Chronology of Émile Zola Family Tree of the Rougon-Macquart Doctor Pascal Explanatory Notes
