Au Bonheur des Dames
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Revision as of 23:11, 27 February 2011
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Relation to the other Rougon-Macquart novels
As the last novel in the series, Le docteur Pascal ties up the loose ends of the remaining family members' lives. It is the only Rougon-Macquart novel that has all five generations of the family represented. Furthermore, it is the only novel in which a representative from each of the five generations dies: Tante Dide, Antoine Macquart, Pascal Rougon, Maxime Rougon/Saccard, and his son Charles.
Adelaïde Fouque (Tante Dide), the family ancestress, has lived in an asylum for 21 years. She dies at the age of 105 after witnessing the death of her great-great-grandson Charles. Her eldest son Pierre Rougon, Félicité's husband, died two years before the novel opens. Her younger son Antoine Macquart is a drunk. He dies during the course of the novel when his body, soaked with alcohol from a lifetime of drinking, catches fire - a fictional instance of spontaneous human combustion that may be compared to the death of Krook in Bleak House. Here again Zola touches, in a horrific manner, on the consequences of the excessive consumption of alcohol, a theme common to the entire Rougon-Macquart cycle.
Clotilde's brother Maxime lives in a Parisian mansion; he is suffering from ataxia and is being preyed upon by his father Aristide Saccard (see L'argent), who wants to get his hands on Maxime's money. Maxime has an illegitimate son named Charles, a hemophiliac, who bleeds to death on an afternoon visit to Tante Dide. Maxime too dies in the last pages of the novel.
In addition, we learn about the following:
- Eugène Rougon, Pascal's elder brother, is a deputy in the legislature where he continues to defend the fallen Emperor.
- Aristide Saccard, Pascal's younger brother, exiled to Belgium after the fall of the Banque Universelle (see L'argent), has returned to France. He is editor of a newspaper and is again building new and great businesses. After Maxime dies, he pockets his fortune for his own ends.
- Victor, Aristide's illegitimate son, has disappeared into the streets of Paris and left no trace (see L'argent).
- Sidonie Rougon, Pascal's sister, after a life of impropriety, now lives in "nunlike austerity" as the financial mistress of a home for unwed mothers.
- Octave Mouret and his wife Denise (Au bonheur des dames) have two children, a sickly daughter and a robust and healthy son.
- Serge Mouret (La faute de l'Abbé Mouret), a parish priest, lives in religious seclusion with his sister Desirée. At the end of Le docteur Pascal, his death is imminent.
- Hélène Mouret and her husband Rambaud (Une page d'amour) continue to live in Marseilles, childless.
- Pauline Quenu (La joie de vivre) still lives at Bonneville, raising Lazare's son Paul (her uncle Chanteau having died) while Lazare, now a widower, has gone to America.
- Étienne Lantier (Germinal) was arrested for taking part in the violence of the Paris Commune and sent to New Caledonia, where he is married and has a child.
- Jean Macquart (La terre, La débâcle) has married and lives a town near Plassans. He and his wife have two vital and healthy children, and they are expecting a third at the close of the series. The hope for any enduring strength of the family lies here, as with Clotilde and Pascal's son.
