tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45989291074071057392024-03-13T22:34:03.365-07:00Émile Zola BlogThe life, works and legacies of Émile ZolaFanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-42993841685188311022015-04-29T02:29:00.002-07:002015-04-29T02:29:20.990-07:00The Life and Times of Émile Zola<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PdIy1HORnD0/VUCj5rKBbHI/AAAAAAAARiA/wMz7txF7xmc/s1600/the-life-and-times.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PdIy1HORnD0/VUCj5rKBbHI/AAAAAAAARiA/wMz7txF7xmc/s1600/the-life-and-times.jpg" height="400" width="260" /></a></div>
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Shame on me,
really, for after three years having been Émile Zola’s hardcore fan, I have
never read any of his biographies! So in <a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2015/04/zoladdiction-2015-germinal-read-along.html">Zoladdiction 2015</a> I would not read any
Zola’s novels (only Germinal rereading), to make room for his biography by
F.W.J. Hemmings.</div>
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Hemmings
covered his investigation from the beginning of 19<sup>th</sup> century. Zola’s
mother was a humble-birth young girl of a glazier family, who could not have
afforded her dowry if a forty four year old Francesco Zola—a son of a
distinguished military family of Republic of Venice—has never been attracted to
her. Zola’s father was a genius in constructive business, but never succeeded
until his death when Zola was only seven years old. After paying off the debts,
the Zolas must leave Aix-en-Provence to live very humbly in Paris with the aids
of some friends. It was perhaps his memory of Aix’ country landscape which inspired
Zola to write beautiful narration about nature in his novels.</div>
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Émile Zola
arrived in Paris in 1851, the era when Baron Haussmann was renovating Paris
into modern industrial city. If you are reading (or have read) Zola’s The
Rougon Macquart series, this theme would not be unfamiliar to you. The world was
changing, and so was Paris. Zola’s interest, besides in literature, laid in
art, especially paintings. It was the era when young Impressionists strove to reform
the old Romantic style, and to get their paintings recognized and exhibited in
The Académie des Beaux-Arts. Zola fought for them through his journals, and by
hosting meetings in his place, just as Pierre Sandoz did in <i>The Masterpiece</i>. And indeed, most of his
novels were inspired by real facts or things he witnessed from his life; including
some of his female characters.</div>
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Through this
book you will get to know the real Émile Zola, with all his struggles in life
and in writing. Yes, in writing. Reading his books, you will notice that he was
not a writer who would sit on his desk and pour out his imagination on paper
just like that. No, he would think of the theme first, then creating the
structure, breaking it down into parts or even chapters, studying (from books
or observing) the objects he would write about, and finally filling it with his
narration. He was not an impulsive person; but rather a genius who would
calculate everything beforehand to ensure that he would come up with the
desired result. That is Zola.</div>
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I think in a
way Zola and I have something in common; we both don’t belong to the majority,
and often felt lonely because we were different, for it’s hard to find friends
who share our ideas. Once we have an opinion (and we always know we are right),
we don’t like to deny it just because our lot don’t approve of it. What I
admire in him mostly is his brave act of attacking the wrong accusation of
Alfred Dreyfus. And he did it not for fame or image building, but because he
always fight for the truth; dared to take risk for something he believed was
right. </div>
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In short,
this will tell you the real personalities of a Zola, and it helps a lot to
relate with his novels when we are reading it.</div>
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Four stars
for The Life and Times of Émile Zola</div>
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~~~~~~~~~~~</div>
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<br /></div>
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I read Bloomsbury reader paperback</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>This book is counted
for:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-medMTKl_NaY/VUCkR3GtYUI/AAAAAAAARiI/j2wdc4GbHhE/s1600/zoladdiction-2015-button.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-medMTKl_NaY/VUCkR3GtYUI/AAAAAAAARiI/j2wdc4GbHhE/s1600/zoladdiction-2015-button.png" height="214" width="320" /></a></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2015/04/zoladdiction-2015-germinal-read-along.html">Zoladdiction 2015</a></div>
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<br /></div>
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3<sup>rd</sup> book for <a href="https://perpuskecil.wordpress.com/2015/01/15/lucky-no-15-reading-challenge/">Lucky No. 15 Reading Challenge (Something New)</a></div>
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Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-29419848320033503892014-08-07T14:34:00.000-07:002015-04-29T02:36:09.285-07:00The Debacle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fyXY0YIPZCk/U-LW6HecOmI/AAAAAAAAQ4c/rnaSW1iJPuw/s1600/the-debacle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fyXY0YIPZCk/U-LW6HecOmI/AAAAAAAAQ4c/rnaSW1iJPuw/s1600/the-debacle.jpg" height="320" width="211" /></a></div>
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All these
times I have been thinking that Dickens’ <i>A
Tale of Two Cities</i> would be my most favorite historical-war-novel ever.
It’s just so memorable; with its famous opening “<i>It was the best of times, it was the worst of times […]</i>” and the
pure love showed by Sidney Carton. In term of war<i>, War and Peace </i>was thicker in ‘war nature’ then <i>A Tale</i>, but Tolstoy emphasized too much
on war idealism that it became partly too serious. But now I think I have found
my new favorite historical-war-novel that exceeded those two: <i>The Debacle</i>. </div>
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<i>The Debacle</i> is the only historical novel
by Émile Zola; it depicted the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1871), and became the
penultimate novel of Rougon-Macquart series. The story began in the middle of
the war; the main character is Jean Macquart—a farmer who had been in another
war before—but now the Corporal of the 7<sup>th</sup> army corps. Another
important character is Maurice Levasseur—a young man brought up well and
educated—now a soldier under Jean’s command. At first they were indifferent of
each other because of their different backgrounds; but in wars, status,
education, wealth, everything that distinguishes someone dissolves and replaced
by humanity. And so, having struggled together, Jean and Maurice became intimate
friends, even closer than blood brother. They were willing to risk their own
lives for the sake of the other. </div>
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In terms of
the war, Zola has painstakingly written a very vivid picture of war as
human-killing machine. It was compounded by French army’s bad coordination,
incapability of the generals, and the indecision of the Emperor. France has
been deluded itself by thinking of repeating the past grandeur of Napoleon.
Many people could not realize that the Second Empire was corrupted, and that
the Prussians was now much stronger than they have thought. Ironically, it was
a civilian gentleman named Weiss (Maurice’s brother-in-law) who first predicted
the great defeat of France, but at that time no one listened to him and even thought
him a traitor. Moreover, Weiss—with no military background but his local
knowledge of the land—could see what the Prussians would do; while none of the
military general could read their strategy. It’s more than irony, it’s a
stupidity. And what made the tragedy even tragic, was the stupidity of several
people that finally destroyed many lives—the soldiers as well as civilians. </div>
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Zola
explained to us his analysis of the root of the problems in chapter one – part
one:</div>
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<blockquote style="-moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 15px; -moz-border-radius-topleft: 15px; -moz-border-radius-topright: 15px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 15px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 15px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 8px; background-color: #ddb791; color: black; margin: 1em 40px; padding: 15px;">
<i>“The Empire grown old, still acclaimed in a
plebiscite but basically rotten because it had weakened the idea of patriotism
by destroying liberty, and then turning back to liberalism too late and thereby
hastening its own undoing because it was ready to collapse as soon as it
stopped satisfying the lust for pleasure it had let loose; the army certainly
admirable as a brave lot of men, and still wearing the laurels of the Crimea
and Italy, but adulterated by the system of paid substitutes, still in the old
routine of the Africa school, too cocksure of victory to face the great effort
of modern technique; and then the generals, most of them nonentities and eaten
up with rivalries and some of them quite-stupefyingly ignorant, and at their
head the Emperor, a sick man and vacillating, deceived and self-deceiving, and all
facing this terrible adventure into which they were blindly hurling themselves,
with no serious preparation, like a stampede of scared sheep being led to the
slaughter.”</i></blockquote>
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It was painful
to read how the soldiers being maneuvered now here, then there, back and forth,
and in poor conditions: fatigue, hungry, and distressed. And this was how I
loved Zola’s <i>The Debacle</i>. Because it
is not just a historical novel, it’s a living portrayal of a corrupted nation.
Not only honest, but it was also painful; the ending especially. Actually it
reminded me of <i>Germinal</i>, in the sense
of a faint hope in future beneath the ruinous present. Like Etiènne Lantier,
Jean Macquart was a simple man, and because of that, he never had the
upper/middle class sentiment about French past grandeur. He was perhaps the
least afflicted by the idea of beaten by the barbarians of Germany, and that
was how he did not end like Maurice.</div>
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Zola proved
himself as a great writer. The Debacle won’t be as it is if he had not done
very thorough researches on the war and on how people reacted over it. And he
(as usual) crafted the history and his naturalism theory on Rougon-Macquart in
his beautiful, powerful, and intense narration. It instantly became my next
favorite, along with <i>Germinal</i>, <i>L’Assommoir</i>, and <i>La Bète Humaine</i>.</div>
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Bravo Zola!
Five stars for you!</div>
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Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-73040674884840018472014-04-29T14:19:00.000-07:002015-04-29T02:31:47.511-07:00[Review] Nana<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PMyeA23nS0c/U130plnmhdI/AAAAAAAAQew/ypl1oCQZXCw/s1600/nana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PMyeA23nS0c/U130plnmhdI/AAAAAAAAQew/ypl1oCQZXCw/s1600/nana.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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Now 15 years
old, Nana Coupeau, Gervaise and Coupeau’s daughter, first appeared in <a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2012/04/lassommoir.html">L’Assommoir</a>
as a child. Brought up on the street, Nana started her career as a tart, or
courtesan, or whatever you might call for prostitutes. However that day, three years
before Franco-Prussian War, Nana would began her new step as an actress in the Théâtre
des Variétés. Her debut has created a big fuss all over Paris, although—as the
manager stated—she had neither good voice nor good acting. The opera
was very successful, and Nana suddenly became a famous tart in Paris. Many
gentlemen fell for her; there was a count who came from very conservative
family; another was a girlish young man; while the others ranged from Jewish
banker to rich hedonist young men of all Paris. They were all bent under Nana’s
sexual charm; risking everything—money, family, honor—to be with her. In three
years Nana has been ruining these men’s lives, but the one who suffered most
was Count Muffat.</div>
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In Nana,
Zola criticized the moral corruption which infected France in the Second
Empire. Actually, reading Nana right after <a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-kill.html">The Kill</a> was quite
intriguing, because I felt a close similarity in both novels—the moral lose in
the shape of excessive sexual and pleasure appetites. In Nana herself, we saw that
her alcoholic parents and the slump environment affected her sexual behavior
and gave her insatiable passion for pleasure. </div>
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We also
learned from <i>Nana</i> how difficult for
people who lived in the gutter of Paris to avoid their return to the same gutter,
no matter what they do. In fact, Nana was once one of the richest tarts in
Paris, while rich and influential men provided any luxury she asked for.
However, no matter how much she possessed, she would spend much more. And
although she longed to be regarded as a lady, she still could not resist of
taking men from street to sleep with her, from time to time.</div>
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It is also
interesting to see how women in the second half of 19<sup>th</sup> century
struggled to have more influence in the midst of patriarchal world. At that era, women didn't have access to both education and career, but they learned that they had another power which only women had: sexual charm, and it was so powerful that they could overpower the men and rule the country or society. Here the moral
loose was not only in the lower level of society (the workers), but also in the
aristocracy, both courtesans and respectable ladies gripped their claws in the
men’s lives and ruin them. </div>
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There were a
lot of other examples in Nana, that it is so difficult to break the habitual
chain we inherited from our families and environment. Zola often made his
characters to be helpless victims, as if they had neither any will power nor
hope to change themselves. As if, we, human being, are merely product of
nature, and our future always depends on evolution process. I have read seven
books from Zola, and in most of them, I always thought, why they (the central
characters) didn’t fight? Why did they surrender to their weaknesses? It is all
because Zola is a naturalist, and in this Les Rougon-Macquart series he
emphasized how hereditary weakness and corrupted society were powerful enough
to drag a person, helplessly, down to the gutter. He did not intend to preach
us on morality or religion; he just wanted to present how the corruption
happened.</div>
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Out of his
method and principle, Zola is no doubt great in story-telling, and he never
fails to amaze me. Nana won’t perhaps be one of my favorites, but the story is
entertaining and flows nicely with (as usual) a theatrical ending. Four stars
for Nana!</div>
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<br /></div>
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~~~~~~~</div>
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<br /></div>
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I read the Oxford World Classics paperback edition</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>This book is counted
as:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UeOzCr269jg/U130_xOK2zI/AAAAAAAAQe4/cplyHM9ke24/s1600/zoladdiction-2014-button.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UeOzCr269jg/U130_xOK2zI/AAAAAAAAQe4/cplyHM9ke24/s1600/zoladdiction-2014-button.jpg" height="320" width="266" /></a></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>2<sup>nd</sup> book for <a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2014/03/zoladdiction-2014-announcement.html">Zoladdiction 2014</a></div>
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Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-88051013897107611262014-04-22T23:08:00.003-07:002014-04-22T23:09:51.237-07:00[Review] The Kill<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5nCS9TAXDOM/U1W33mp9nXI/AAAAAAAAQcc/2gScH8wLIR0/s1600/the-kill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5nCS9TAXDOM/U1W33mp9nXI/AAAAAAAAQcc/2gScH8wLIR0/s1600/the-kill.jpg" height="320" width="211" /></a></div>
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If you think
I am going to review a thriller/mystery book, you are mistaken! The Kill is a
novel by Émile Zola; the second in his Les Rougon-Macquart series, and there is
no murder act in this novel, whose original title is <i>La Curée</i>. From the Introduction (I read Brian Nelson’s translation
from Oxford World’s Classics): “la curée <i>denotes,
literally, the part of an animal fed to the hounds that have run it to ground</i>.”
From the title, we immediately recognize the first naturalism trace on this
novel. </div>
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<i>The Kill</i> depicted the vulgar political
spoils and financial gain during the Second Empire of France. Aristide Rougon
arrived in Paris with the hunger of a huntsman. Thanks to his brother who was a
minister in the Second Empire, Aristide got his first job as a clerk in city
planning office, and changed his name to Aristide Saccard. From the beginning
Saccard was a scoundrel; and with his cunning eyes he saw how Paris was
transforming itself into a modern city by building new boulevards over the
existing houses. He began his ambition with property speculation—buying houses
that would soon be demolished, and later on claimed a high compensation to the
city. His loyal wife suddenly died in the right time; as the only way to get
huge capital money for his ambition was by marrying a rich girl.</div>
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Renée was a
dynamic woman, and living glamorously in her mansion bored her very much. So,
when Maxime, Saccard’s son from his late wife, moved in the house, the mother
and the stepson soon began their (half) incestuous love affair. And these two
moral corruptions grew eagerly in the Saccards’, and in the end Renée became
the victim; she had lost the battle, just like a quarry finished by its hunter.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<o:p>Th</o:p>is novel
appeared to not containing enough conflict to make it enjoyable. After the
background story of Saccard and Renée, the plot becomes rather flat. Yes, like
all other Zola’s novel, the character(s) would have their downfall, but in The
Kill, the process is rather too tedious. Zola went describing the
interior of buildings in long and detailed passages, that at the end you cannot
imagine anything at all. The only comfort comes from the detailed description
of <a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2014/04/bois-de-boulogne-in-zolas-kill.html">Renée and Maxime’s excursion to Bois de Boulogne</a>. As always, Zola’s
painter-side could brush his words beautifully onto the pages, as if you are
watching lines of paintings on Bois de Boulogne in a gallery. When comes to
nature description, Zola is great.</div>
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<br /></div>
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In relation
to the Rougon-Macquart series, <i>The Kill</i>
pointed out the greediness in gold and women (lust for money and for pleasure);
moral corruption which Zola found on the Second Empire of France.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Three and a
half stars for <i>La Curée</i>, it’s not my
favorite Zola, but the naturalism theme—and his writing style, as always—is
still beautiful.</div>
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Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-46244433594357166872014-04-17T23:04:00.000-07:002014-04-22T23:04:48.701-07:00Bois de Boulogne in The Kill<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
This second
novel of Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series turns out to be very picturesque; as if
Zola wants to explore his painter-side by describing in micro-details almost
every landscape and building interior. As Bois de Boulogne becomes one
important aspect of the story—and he ‘paints’ them a lot—I dedicated this post
to stretch my imagination about Bois de Boulogne, especially in 19<sup>th</sup>
century. Of course, most of them might not express the exact details from the
book, but at least they help our imagination. </div>
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After
comparing the pictures and the passages, you might agree with me, that Zola’s
description is much more beautiful than the pictures. He might not be a
successful painter, but Zola is one of the greatest novelists who could ‘paint’
such beautiful, powerful, and touching prose.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YXNuag7sYWE/U089YpXOK7I/AAAAAAAAQZM/3hZg4L7wX6I/s1600/the-kill-image1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YXNuag7sYWE/U089YpXOK7I/AAAAAAAAQZM/3hZg4L7wX6I/s1600/the-kill-image1.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://victoriainteriors.blogspot.com/2011/07/changing-skies.html">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>“<i>The sun was setting in a grey October sky, streaked on the horizon with thin clouds.</i>”</b> </span></div>
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[p.1]</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VNozKjH5eKo/U08_CvPPNZI/AAAAAAAAQZY/YofhXSwBzKo/s1600/the-kill-bois-de-boulogne-riding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VNozKjH5eKo/U08_CvPPNZI/AAAAAAAAQZY/YofhXSwBzKo/s1600/the-kill-bois-de-boulogne-riding.jpg" height="400" width="333" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://www.pierre-auguste-renoir.org/home-7-24-1-0.html">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">“<i>On the right, copses and low-cut trees with russet leaves and slender branches passed slowly by; at intervals, on the track reserved for riders, slim-waisted gentlemen galloped past, their steeds raising little clouds of fine dust behind them</i>.”</span> </b></div>
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[p.7]</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gHMclJ1ZCRk/U08_0Mci91I/AAAAAAAAQZg/WS0Ae0FPhGU/s1600/the-kill-bois-de-boulogne-carriages2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gHMclJ1ZCRk/U08_0Mci91I/AAAAAAAAQZg/WS0Ae0FPhGU/s1600/the-kill-bois-de-boulogne-carriages2.jpg" height="409" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://rompedas.blogspot.com/2011/01/vues-de-paris.html">source</a>]</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;"> “…<i>in the avenue leading to the lake, the roads had been watered, the carriages rolled over the brown surface as over a carpet, amid a freshness, a rising fragrance of moist earth.</i>”</span> </b></div>
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[p. 257]</div>
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<b style="color: #990000; text-align: center;">“<i>And as the lake came closer, the chairs on the side paths became more numerous, families sat with quiet, silent faces, watching the endless procession of wheels</i>.”</b></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YNQ4XzayhIQ/U09CeX3HTZI/AAAAAAAAQZ4/_UD6Qrc-MZY/s1600/the-kill-bois-de-boulogne-sunshine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YNQ4XzayhIQ/U09CeX3HTZI/AAAAAAAAQZ4/_UD6Qrc-MZY/s1600/the-kill-bois-de-boulogne-sunshine.jpg" height="250" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://unlike.net/paris/escapism/hippodrome-de-longchamp">source</a>]</td></tr>
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<b style="color: #990000; text-align: center;">“<i>Then, on reaching the open space in front of the lake, there was an effulgence; the slanting sun transformed the round sheet of water into a great mirror of polished silver</i>.”</b></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dtVfiIFNrM4/U09EHHgLcUI/AAAAAAAAQaE/9EdH2_E-uDU/s1600/the-kill-waterfall-bois-de-boulogne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dtVfiIFNrM4/U09EHHgLcUI/AAAAAAAAQaE/9EdH2_E-uDU/s1600/the-kill-waterfall-bois-de-boulogne.jpg" height="298" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://greenhotelparis.com/en/bois-de-boulogne-nature-activites/">source</a>]</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t9_QRpvJxRc/U09EesGNBjI/AAAAAAAAQaM/vwMufFAiZiE/s1600/the-kill-bois-de-boulogne-island.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t9_QRpvJxRc/U09EesGNBjI/AAAAAAAAQaM/vwMufFAiZiE/s1600/the-kill-bois-de-boulogne-island.jpeg" height="267" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bois_de_Boulogne">source</a>]</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">“<i>On approaching the waterfall, while the dimness of the copses was renewed on one side, the islands of the far end of the lake rose up against the blue sky, with their sunlit banks, the bold shadows of their pine trees, and the Chalêt at their feet, which looked like a child’s toy lost in a virgin forest. The whole park laughed and quivered in the sun</i>.”</span></b> </div>
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[p.258]</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8EtmF5Et1h0/U09HYvNVOhI/AAAAAAAAQag/K_hFqIjGin8/s1600/the-kill-yellow-leaves.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8EtmF5Et1h0/U09HYvNVOhI/AAAAAAAAQag/K_hFqIjGin8/s1600/the-kill-yellow-leaves.jpg" height="255" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://www.goodfon.su/wallpaper/trava-listya-derevya-boke.html">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>“…<i>in the presence of this broad daylight, of these sheets of sunshine, she thought of a fine dust of twilight she had seen falling one evening upon the yellow leaves</i>.”</b></span> </div>
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[p.258]</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u-nhFg39IAE/U09FGt3KFGI/AAAAAAAAQaU/P2g8t81nXnA/s1600/the-kill-bois+de-boulogne-skating.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u-nhFg39IAE/U09FGt3KFGI/AAAAAAAAQaU/P2g8t81nXnA/s1600/the-kill-bois+de-boulogne-skating.jpg" height="295" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://historyinphotos.blogspot.com/2013/09/henri-lemoine.html">source</a>]</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">“<i>She remained frozen when she evoked the image of that winter landscape, that congealed and dimmed lake on which they had skated; the sky was the colour of soot, and the snow had stitched white bands of lace on the trees, the wind blew fine sands into their faces</i>.”</span></b> </div>
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[p.259]</div>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>“<i>She saw again the lawns soaked by the evening air, the darkened copses, the deserted pathways. The line of carriages drove then with a mournful sound past the empty chairs, while today the rumble of the wheels, the trot of the horses, sounded with the joyousness of a fanfare of trumpets</i>.” </b></span></div>
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[p.258]</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8cGnT4fyxj8/U09JDbzrwyI/AAAAAAAAQa0/HnaCekmtkkY/s1600/the-kill-bois-de-boulogne-lake-sunset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8cGnT4fyxj8/U09JDbzrwyI/AAAAAAAAQa0/HnaCekmtkkY/s1600/the-kill-bois-de-boulogne-lake-sunset.jpg" height="400" width="297" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://byuinparis.blogspot.com/2009/11/walk-in-woods-bois-de-boulogne.html">source</a>]</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #990000;"><b>“<i>It was almost night; twilight was spreading slowly like fine ash. The lake, seen from the front, in the pale light that still hovered over the water, became rounder, like a huge tin fish; on either sides, the plantations of evergreens, whose slim, straight stems seemed to rise up from its still surface, looked at this hour like purple colonnades, delineating with their even shapes the studied curves of the shore; and shrubs rose in the background, confused masses of foliage forming large black patches that closed off the horizon</i>.” </b></span></div>
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[p.11]</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5fvqjpNdywc/U09KOHArXuI/AAAAAAAAQa8/TVT63MG7DDY/s1600/the-kill-sunset-bois-de-boulogne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5fvqjpNdywc/U09KOHArXuI/AAAAAAAAQa8/TVT63MG7DDY/s1600/the-kill-sunset-bois-de-boulogne.jpg" height="293" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://www.parisparee.com/3-parks-parisians-love-and-you-will-too/">source</a>]</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">“<i>Behind these patches was the glow of the
dying sunset, which set fire to only a small portion of the grey immensity.
Above the still lake, the low copses, the strangely flat perspective, stretched
the vast sky, infinite, deepened and widened. The great slice of sky hanging
over this small piece of nature caused a thrill, an indefinable sadness</i>...”</span></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-drewHdL0HD4/U09NBDuL0GI/AAAAAAAAQbQ/Y3PuvxMtZdo/s1600/the-kill-bois-de-boulogne-night.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-drewHdL0HD4/U09NBDuL0GI/AAAAAAAAQbQ/Y3PuvxMtZdo/s1600/the-kill-bois-de-boulogne-night.jpg" height="273" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://elle-belle10.livejournal.com/1267129.html?thread=11958201">source</a>]</td></tr>
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<b><span style="color: #990000;">“…<i>And from these palling heights fell so deep
an </i><i>autumnal melancholy, so sweet and heart-breaking a darkness, that the Bois,
wound little by little in a shadowy shroud, lost its worldly graces, and
widened out, full of the powerful charm that forests have. The wheels of the
carriages, whose bright colours were fading in the twilight, sounded like the
distant voices of leaves and running water. Everything was slowly dying away</i>.”</span></b></div>
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~~~~~~~~~</div>
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Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-66983501698500831342013-04-25T18:35:00.000-07:002014-04-22T18:36:34.795-07:00Jacques Lantier in La Bête Humaine<br />
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If we ignore the ‘human beast’ in him, Jacques
Lantier is certainly an amiable young man. He was handsome, tall, with strong
built muscles which his job as a train driver required. Despite of having born
from poor parents, Jacques was well educated, and he was a skillful engineer
and driver too. His manly appearance and his shy and polite manner attracted
quite many women.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The most interesting side of our main character in
this book (for me, at least) is his love for his train engine: La Lison (the
name he gave ‘her’). Being that, Jacques could have been made example of man
who really loves what he’s doing. Throughout the story Jacques was always
discipline at work, and he disliked his fireman’s manner although he tolerated him
as long as he did his job well. Unfortunately, Jacques had also a dark side; a
compulsive behavior triggered by sexual passion that he could not control. It’s
a pity, because he was genuinely a kind man. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I found Jacques was very attentive towards his
aunt; he visited her whenever he was around, and he listened to her sorrows. No
wonder, her poor aunty loved him even more than her only daughter. I was quite relieved
by how Jacques could listen to his conscience when Séverine persuaded him to kill
Roubaud. It only proved that Jacques was not a real murderer, he just had an
illness, and could not control it when the seizure came.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r0fADPmocPs/UXeAbR3YYwI/AAAAAAAANg4/PNLYODfKNKA/s1600/jacques-lantier1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r0fADPmocPs/UXeAbR3YYwI/AAAAAAAANg4/PNLYODfKNKA/s320/jacques-lantier1.jpg" height="304" width="320" /></a></div>
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In general, I think Jacques had a problem with his
explosive passion, just like his brother Claude. So the cure would only be
mildly taking everything in life and maintain the balance of his every aspect.
It’s much easier to say than to apply in action, of course, not mentioning that
Jacques was very attractive. In the end, there was not any good choices for Jacques’
future, and I think what Zola made him in the end is the best for him. Poor
Jacques…..<br />
<br /></div>
<script src="http://www.blenza.com/linkies/autolink.php?owner=fanda&postid=15Aug2012" type="text/javascript"></script>Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-270080476990486092013-04-24T18:30:00.000-07:002014-04-22T18:30:38.385-07:00La Lison in Snow - from La Bête Humaine<br />
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If there is
one thing I like most from <a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2013/04/la-bete-humaine.html">La Bête Humaine</a>—besides the story and what
laid beneath it, of course—it is the beautiful way Zola wrote the passages
about La Lison’s adventures. La Lison is the name Jacques Lantier gave to his
locomotive. Jacques is an engine driver of a railway company, and for an engine
driver, his career depends on how he takes care of the engine. Jacques always
takes care of La Lison as if she is his lover. He would clean her, caress her,
and look after her needs. Jacques knows her character—yes, from my experiences
of working in a machinery trading company, I believe engine has its own
character—and he loves her for those characters. Jacques can always trust La
Lison to work together and give a magnificent output that helps Jacques become
one of the most successful drivers for the railway company.</div>
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In one of
the most thrilling parts of the book, Zola makes La Lison as if she is a woman.
It is when La Lison and Jacques must get through a quite heavy snow to get to
Paris from Le Havre. I was amazed by how vividly Zola portrayed La Lison here;
the scenes I want to capture forever in my memory. Here’re just several of them
depicting La Lison in her last journey….</div>
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<span style="color: #741b47;"><b>“<i>La Lison stood puffing steam and smoke,
coupled to a train of seven coaches….</i> <i>The
wind was blowing from the east, and the engine met it head on, lashed by its
gusts… But in the darkness the brilliant beam from the headlamp seemed to be
swallowed up by the thick, wan drapes of failing snow. Instead of being lit at
a distance of two or three hundred meters, the track appeared through a kind of
milky fog, from which objects loomed into view only at the very last moment, as
if from the depths of a dream</i>.”</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B3tI8Hyg4U4/UXYYWf1IKZI/AAAAAAAANfk/TYKxBmmbgLE/s1600/la-lison2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B3tI8Hyg4U4/UXYYWf1IKZI/AAAAAAAANfk/TYKxBmmbgLE/s400/la-lison2.jpg" height="250" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/8181494/Steam-railways-still-running-while-modern-network-suffers-weather-disruption.html">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b><span style="color: #741b47;"><i>“(The speed) was dropping fast, La Lison was
laboring, and (Jacques) could feel the increasing resistance of the snow
against the plough… The needle on the pressure-gauge had rapidly gone back up
to ten atmospheres; La Lison was producing all the power of which she was
capable…But it soon recovered, and the engine was snorting and spitting like an
animal being driven too hard, rearing and jolting so much one could almost hear
its limbs cracking. And Jacques bullied her along as if she were an old woman
whose strength was failing, someone he no longer loved as once he had</i>.”</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c8ULzuUq6lQ/UXYeCX8QjyI/AAAAAAAANf0/F35KEd9LPIs/s1600/la-lison5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c8ULzuUq6lQ/UXYeCX8QjyI/AAAAAAAANf0/F35KEd9LPIs/s400/la-lison5.jpg" height="325" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://community.how-to-draw-and-paint.com/photo/winter-freight?xg_source=activity">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b><span style="color: #741b47;"><o:p> </o:p>“<i>And indeed at that precise moment Jacques
was repeating in exasperation: “She’ll never make it unless we grease her.” And
he did what he had seldom ever done, he grabbed the grease-gun to lubricate her
while she was running…. And La Lison, with this man clinging to her side,
pursued her breathless path into the night, opening up a deep furrow of herself
through the fast blanket of white</i>.”</span></b></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kebRQBsBEmc/UXYeoAnFVqI/AAAAAAAANf8/RgW1is4AStk/s1600/la-lison4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kebRQBsBEmc/UXYeoAnFVqI/AAAAAAAANf8/RgW1is4AStk/s400/la-lison4.jpg" height="263" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://4rail.net/media_storey_1.html">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<o:p> </o:p><b><span style="color: #741b47;">“<i>Up on the plateu, La Lison did in fact make
good speed, and without undue difficulty. But she was flagging nevertheless.
The driver had constantly to keep opening the firebox door as a sign to the
fireman to put more coal on; and each time he did, there rose above the somber-looking
train—itself black against all this white and covered in a shroud—the blazing
comet’s tail, boring into the night</i>.”</span></b></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-85SVlLztBZE/UXYe5Sl6ksI/AAAAAAAANgI/bT6H_em5ubQ/s1600/la-lison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-85SVlLztBZE/UXYe5Sl6ksI/AAAAAAAANgI/bT6H_em5ubQ/s400/la-lison.jpg" height="301" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Monet_-_Train_in_the_Snow.jpg">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: #741b47;"><b>“</b></span><i><span style="color: #741b47;"><b>La Lison had just entered a cutting where
she should have to plough through snow more than a meter thick. She was now
making progress only under the utmost strain, and her whole frame shook with
it. For a moment she faltered, as though she might grind to a halt like a ship
running onto a sandbank. What weighed her down was the heavy layer of snow
which had gradually accumulated on the roofs of the carriages."</b></span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UoaAIqQ8JD0/UXYfUxElPWI/AAAAAAAANgM/PqJ-zZ1jYz4/s1600/la-lison3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UoaAIqQ8JD0/UXYfUxElPWI/AAAAAAAANgM/PqJ-zZ1jYz4/s400/la-lison3.jpg" height="400" width="293" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Train_stuck_in_snow.jpg">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b><span style="color: #741b47;">“<i>On they rolled, black against white along a
furrow of white, with their white pall stretched out above them; while La Lison
herself was merely trimmed in ermine, that clothed her dark flanks where the
snowflakes melted into watery trickles. Once again, despite the weight, she
freed herself, and through she went. And up on the broad curve of an
embankment, the train could still be seen running easily, like a ribbon of dark
shadow lost in a wonderland of dazzling whiteness</i>.”</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f4DyObSxeZ0/UXYfz_LjCsI/AAAAAAAANgU/itJUb1tCdxI/s1600/la-lison6.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f4DyObSxeZ0/UXYfz_LjCsI/AAAAAAAANgU/itJUb1tCdxI/s400/la-lison6.jpeg" height="298" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://tours.railtrail.co.uk/">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b><span style="color: #741b47;">“<i>But soon there were further cuttings… Once
again the engine was losing speed. She had run between two banks, and the final
halt came slowly, without a jolt. It was as though she had run into glue and it
was sticking to every one of her wheels, holding her tighter and tighter till
her breath was gone</i>.”</span></b></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EBbmT5dP3EE/UXYgJSvbHjI/AAAAAAAANgc/QTL28YVA758/s1600/la-lison7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EBbmT5dP3EE/UXYgJSvbHjI/AAAAAAAANgc/QTL28YVA758/s400/la-lison7.jpg" height="260" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://poppenga.blogspot.com/">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Oh, how
could I not falling in love with the man who wrote it? As I have written in <a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2013/04/la-bete-humaine.html">my review</a>, It feels as if Zola has painted his idea into a canvas called
novel, instead of writing it!</div>
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Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-36872393245941423192013-04-22T18:24:00.000-07:002014-04-22T18:25:47.064-07:00[Review] La Bête Humaine<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z3dEH5xyPuo/UW4aTPh25nI/AAAAAAAANdQ/kb8hbGoJ0vA/s1600/la-bete-humaine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z3dEH5xyPuo/UW4aTPh25nI/AAAAAAAANdQ/kb8hbGoJ0vA/s320/la-bete-humaine.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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In all human beings there is always the beast within. That’s what Zola
wanted to remind us in La Bête Humaine (= the human beast). There’s always the
animal side in us which lay side by side with the human conscience deep in our
soul. In some people, it might perhaps never been unleashed, and so they would
die honorably after living a decent life. However in most of others, this human
beast could anytime leap out of them uncontrollably. The interesting question
is, why some people can control it, while others can’t? Moreover, could it ever
be controlled? And Zola took us to analyze these in this psychological thriller
novel.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Jacques Lantier (son of Gervaise and Auguste Lantier—<a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2012/04/lassommoir.html">L’Assommoir</a>;
brother of Étienne—<a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2012/04/lassommoir.html">Germinal</a> and Claude—<a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-masterpiece.html">The Masterpiece</a>) is the
main “human beast” in this story. He was an engine-driver of a French railway
company; and was a handsome, educated and skilful worker indeed. From the first
time Jacques had noticed that in time to time a kind of uncontrollable passion
to kill a female would attack him; and when the seizure came, the passion would
control his entire mind and body. For the time being he lived a healthy life as
there was no female in his life, other than ‘La Lison’, his locomotive engine.
But one day when he was visiting his aunt, Jacques was seduced by his cousin
Flore who had been falling in love with him for a long time. Then and there the
seizure came, and in his runaway of the scene, Jacques witnessed a man cutting
another man’s throat in a fast-running train. As a witness in the murder case,
Jacques came to the acquaintances of the murderers, Roubaud and his beautiful
wife Séverine. When Jacques started to have passionate love towards Séverine,
the beast was awaken there within the recess of his soul, waiting for the right
time to once again control its master.<o:p></o:p></div>
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No wonder that La Bête Humaine was called the most brutal novel of Les
Rougon-Macquart series. Before 60 earlier pages elapsed, we have been offered
not less than three murder scenes or murder attempts by three different
characters to three different victims. And the murders continued on till the
end. Most of all were related to or caused by sexual passion, while others were
moved by greediness. At first I was wondering whether the poverty was the root
of these beasty passions; when human passion was imbalanced with their brains.
However, the murderers came from both the intellectual workers and the
uneducated ones, so it’s not that. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Moreover, Jacques was portrayed as an educated man, a dedicated worker
with a polite manner. On several occasions, his education and his conscience
prevented him to do such low-moral deed, and that’s why Jacques could not kill
the man he ought to. But then, Jacques was not a real murderer, he won’t kill a
man just because he needed to. When the urge to kill came, it was the ‘beast
within’ which dominated his logic and conscience and took over his body. So,
whence did the beast come, then? From the way Zola based the Rougon-Macquart
series on scientific (taxonomy and physiology) point of view, the answer could
be in the hereditary moral corruption. From Jacques’ part, he inherited it from
his ancestors—whom were portrayed as ‘a cave man lifted his prey on his
shoulder’—and especially from his drunkard parents. Now, did that make sense?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RaUWIYgq2mI/UW4wK9RpULI/AAAAAAAANdg/8gTtVs-u6kM/s1600/la-lison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RaUWIYgq2mI/UW4wK9RpULI/AAAAAAAANdg/8gTtVs-u6kM/s400/la-lison.jpg" height="301" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Train dans la neige, 1875, Claude Monet<br />
picturing La Lison, Jacques' train in La Bete Humaine<br />
[<a href="http://michel.cristofol.over-blog.com/article-les-trains-en-litterature-poesie-et-peinture-109165116.html">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I’ve been thinking quite a lot after finishing this book. Basically I
can accept Zola’s theory of the human beast, the savage ‘animal’ passion in
human. However, I also believe in the human free will; the free will God had
granted us since we were born. Physically, human kind had perhaps evolved like
animals—as Darwin put it—but one thing is sure, God granted us first, the divine
spirit in our soul (conscience) to fight the animal passion, and second, the
free will to use or not use it.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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In this book, Zola focused solely on the losers, those who failed to use
their consciences when deciding the murders. Actually, I have had a very slight hope
that Jacques would conquer the human beast somehow, but having been knowing Zola much
better now, that would be in vain. I know that Zola always intended to capture
the worst of human being in order to awaken us to not falling in the same
gutter. Jacques, Roubaud, and several other murderers in this book became
murderers because they had both the human beast AND the conscience within, but
nurtured the former and shut up the latter. Let’s take Jacques for instance, he
knew perfectly well why and when the ‘beast’ would show up in him, i.e. when he
was sexually aroused by a woman. Jacques was intelligent enough to know that
the only thing he must do to prevent the beast from showing up is to stop
making up with women and focused solely his passion to his works. It would
need a huge effort, but again, we always have the choices, and the free will to
choose one. So, we could not put the blame only on the ancestors, as if some of
us were doomed to have ancestors with bad moral, and so we can’t do anything
but to accept it, no! We can always fight it. The only question is, would we?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Over all, Zola wanted to point out that the rapidly growing industry turned
out not to be in line with overall human civilization. With the new century
lurking, came the moral decadence; with the prosperity in some area, came the
poverty in others. Zola pictured the irony as hundreds and thousands people rushed
in express trains to welcome the modernization without ever realizing others
around them who struggled with poverty and beasty passion; poor people whom
they must have seen from their window for split of seconds, but whom were
unrealistic for them. The cost of modernization was often the humanity!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<i>People go fast now, they know more... But wild beasts are still wild beasts, and they can go on inventing bigger and better machines for as long as they like, there'll still be wild beasts underneath there somewhere</i>."</blockquote>
<br /></div>
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And the train of modernization would rush pass the humanity with its indiferrence and dignity; without recognizing that in the deep root of the humanity something would soon emerge; slowly and silently, painfully and terrifyingly....the human beast!<br />
<br />
I must thank Zola for this brilliant and appalling book, which allowed
me to think and reflect a lot. But besides that, I also loved Zola’s vivid
portrays of the railway industry; the busy lives around the railways and the
clanking and the hissy voices of train coming and going, leaving one civilization
to another. But most of all, I loved how Zola personified La Lison. I was actually
deeply touched at the ‘death’ of La Lison—imagine when I was weeping over a
locomotive! But that’s just the genius in Zola. They are so vivid and so
beautiful. Yes, only now I realize that engine can be feminine. The scenes of La Lison went through the snow will always be my favorite! If other writers 'wrote' beautiful passages, Zola beautifully <i>'painted'</i> them in his novel as a canvas. I doubt if any movie director could even capture that scene into movie in the perfect emotion and feeling as Zola wrote it; only Zola can do it, in his perfect painted novel!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Five whole stars then—I’d love to grant more if I can—for La Bête
Humaine. <i>C’est tres bien, Monsieur Zola, merci beaucoup</i>!</div>
Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-53683589270331650392013-04-18T22:25:00.003-07:002013-04-18T22:26:07.526-07:00Pierre Sandoz in The Masterpiece<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This young
novelist, Claude’s best friend in <a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-masterpiece.html">The Masterpiece</a>, actually represented Émile
Zola’s personalities which makes this book the most autobiographical in Les
Rougon-Macquart series. Sandoz was portrayed as an amiable and enthusiast young
man, loved socializing and was always attentive to his friends. He had a habit
of inviting his artist friends to have dinner in his humble house every
Thursday evening, and to have warm discussions—or rather debates—around arts
and politics after the meals. He continued this habit even after marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sandoz was
indeed the oldest of the gang, but it’s not the only reason that he appeared to
have a fatherly quality. Despite of being one of the members of the revolutionary
young artists, Sandoz had a proportional and healthy life. Unlike his maniac
friends, Sandoz possessed the ability to balance his creativity and his
personal life. He did confess that sometimes he would be carried away by his
imagination, that he’d forgot everything surround him; he would be drowned into
his works and ignored his family. Nevertheless, he still kept his marriage well
enough, and he have never neglected the Thursday’s dinner for his friends! I
should say that Sandoz was the ‘glue’ of the gang. I believe Sandoz was the
wisest and most logical artist of them all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nGBGiqa_3ho/UW0atHvWKEI/AAAAAAAANc8/cIyBjLIkaMs/s1600/pierre-sandoz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nGBGiqa_3ho/UW0atHvWKEI/AAAAAAAANc8/cIyBjLIkaMs/s1600/pierre-sandoz.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
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Portrait of Emile Zola - Paul Cezanne, 1864</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Among the
young artists, Sandoz befriended <a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2013/04/claude-lantier-in-masterpiece-character.html">Claude Lantier</a> most closely. I think it’s
because Sandoz’ fatherly quality perfectly matched Claude’s childish and
trustful personalities. Sandoz understood Claude very well, he never laughed at
his mistakes, not because he was afraid to hurt his best friend’s feeling, but
more because he knew that Claude was very sensitive, and criticizing him openly
just brought him down. Sandoz knew how to bring it softly to encourage his
friend. And when Claude did not do Sandoz’ suggestion and failed, Sandoz never
blamed him.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">When Claude
completely failed, unlike the others, Sandoz kept befriending him; he even worried
about him and took great care of him and Christine. Sandoz was willingly to put
his effort and time to take Claude on their strolls to break his despair. And
finally, at the funeral, Sandoz faithfully defended his poor friend; and was
one of few who attended the funeral and took dear old Claude to his last
resting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">What a friend
Pierre Sandoz was, and how lucky Claude for having such a good friend! I won’t
talk about Sandoz’ novels, for Sandoz is Zola, and we all know how genius this
French novelist and Naturalist is!</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-46079068114063970572013-04-17T22:22:00.000-07:002013-04-18T22:23:00.450-07:00Naturalism and Impressionism in The Masterpiece<br />
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During April
I read two books from Émile
Zola for my <a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2013/02/zoladdiction-zola-reading-event.html">Zoladdiction</a> event; one of them is <a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-masterpiece.html">The Masterpiece</a>,
which relates quite a lot about the turning of the century, or specifically
pointing to the birth of <i>Impressionism</i>.
Zola was one of several young artists in Paris who originated the new wave of
arts. Having been saturated by the “dark and grim” Romanticism arts, these
energetic young men (Zola, Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet and Edouard Manet were
among them) introduced more natural, bright sunshine into paintings. I am
quoting a few passages from the book, which I believe was Zola’s own thoughts.</div>
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<b><span style="color: #38761d;">“<i>…Courbet’s “black”
painting is already beginning to feel rusty and reek of a musty studio where the
sun never enters… Do you see what I mean? Perhaps that’s what we need now,
sunlight, open air, something bright and fresh, people and things as seen in
real daylight. I don’t know, but it seems to me that that’s our sort of
painting, the sort of painting our generation should produce and look at.</i>”</span>
</b>~The Masterpiece, p. 37.</div>
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cLRib2WdP3k/UWjY6Zc0zcI/AAAAAAAANb0/7DwW5e1w8-U/s1600/impression.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="307" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cLRib2WdP3k/UWjY6Zc0zcI/AAAAAAAANb0/7DwW5e1w8-U/s400/impression.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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Claude
Monet, Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), 1872</div>
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Impressionist
painting characteristics include relatively small, thin, yet visible brush
strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its
changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time),
ordinary subject matter, inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human
perception and experience, and unusual visual angles. [wiki]. And Claude Monet
with his painting “Impression” has inspired the name of the new style:
Impressionist.</div>
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Not only in
paintings, Zola believed that the naturalism and impressionism should occur
also in other branches of arts: music, sculpture, literature, and
architectural. </div>
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>“<i>Surely all the arts
were intended to march forward together, and the process of change which was
taking place in literature, painting, and even music, was going to lead to a
renewal of architecture too. If ever there was a century in which architecture
should have a style of its own, it was the century shortly to begin, the new
century, new ground ready for reconstruction of every kind, a freshly sown
field, the breeding ground of a new people</i>. <i>Down with the Greek temples, down with the Gothic cathedrals; belief in
legends was dead! Down too with the delicate colonades and the intricate
tracery of the Renaissance, that Classical revival crossed with medieval art…
What was wanted was an architectural formula to fit that democracy, the power
to express it in stone, building which it could feel to be its own, something
big and strong and simple, the sort of thing that was already asserting itself
in railway-stations and market-halls, the solid elegance of metal girders,
developed and refined still further, raised to the status of genuine beauty,
proclaiming the greatness of human achievement</i>.”</b></span> ~The Masterpiece, p. 139.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_mBBM1eMVJY/UWjZY5ErksI/AAAAAAAANcE/iF0j5vfoa_Q/s1600/paul-cezanne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="332" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_mBBM1eMVJY/UWjZY5ErksI/AAAAAAAANcE/iF0j5vfoa_Q/s400/paul-cezanne.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">The Card Players, an iconic work by Cézanne (1892)</span></td></tr>
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Zola also
emphasized the condition near the end of the century with a vast rebuilding
scheme took place, which also touched the land prices and many people attracted
in investments. In short, Zola portrayed the early decadence of the society at
the end of the 19<sup>th</sup> century through The Masterpiece.</div>
</div>
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<span style="color: #38761d;"><b>“<i>We are living in a
bad season, in a vitiated atmosphere, with the century coming to an end and
everything in process of demolition; buildings torn down wholesale; every plot
of land being dug and redug, and every mortal thing stinking of death. How can
anybody expect to be healthy? The nerves go to pieces, general neurosis sets
in, and arts begin to totter, faced with a free-for-all, with anarchy to
follow, and personality fighting tooth and nail for self-assertion.</i>”</b></span> ~The
Masterpiece, p. 359</div>
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Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-34963225641350757532013-04-15T22:20:00.000-07:002013-04-18T22:20:56.249-07:00[Review] The Masterpiece - L'Oeuvre<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RgP1QRPN0AU/UWUn85xmKEI/AAAAAAAANXw/gIV4qOFpO0Y/s1600/the-masterpiece.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RgP1QRPN0AU/UWUn85xmKEI/AAAAAAAANXw/gIV4qOFpO0Y/s320/the-masterpiece.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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“<i>Should we devote our time and energy to
leaving a mark in some way (a painting, a sculpture, an opera, a fortune), or
should we indeed ‘spend more time with our family’ and live for the present?</i>”</div>
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Zola seemed
to let us answer the above question by depicting Claude Lantier’s struggles
between arts and life, imagination and reality. <i>The Masterpiece</i>—although not Zola’s masterpiece—is a prominent work
from the Father of Naturalism which was also the most autobiographical piece from
<i>Les Rougon-Macquart</i> series. Claude
was the son of Gervaise and Auguste Lantier (in <i>L’Assommoir</i>), now lived in Paris as a painter. Together with his
junior artist friends (painters, architect, sculpture, novelist, journalist),
he started the new wave of arts, which later on became Impressionism. Zola’s
own personalities could be found in Pierre Sandoz, Claude’s closest friend, a
novelist who acted as ‘the glue’ of their friendship since school to their
adult lives as artists. They met every Thursday to discuss about the fading
Romanticism that they hated, and the urge to bring their fresh ideas of
Impressionism to public. </div>
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Claude was
the leader of this group (it is assumed that either Paul Cézanne and/or Claude
Monet or Edouard Manet might have inspired his character). Real objects,
natures and outdoor landscapes were his obsession—while at that time painters
used models for indoor paintings of mythological or historical themes.
Unfortunately his paintings were repeatedly rejected by the <i>Salon des Refusés</i> (an exhibition of
works rejected by the jury of the official Paris Salon), while his friends—who adopted
his ‘Open Air’ ideas and who were less talented than him—could gain successes
little by little.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gepun5kM07o/UWUpNICxyQI/AAAAAAAANX8/_7a3AxJfnJ4/s1600/masterpiece1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="322" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gepun5kM07o/UWUpNICxyQI/AAAAAAAANX8/_7a3AxJfnJ4/s400/masterpiece1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bennecourt, where Claude & Christine spent their happy times together<br />
[<a href="http://parfumdelivres.niceboard.com/t752p60-emile-zola">source</a>]</td></tr>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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Claude then found
a perfect landscape in <i>Ile de la Cité</i>
for his masterpiece, and became obsessed to paint it in big canvas, using his wife
Christine as his nude model. However, no matter how hard he had worked on it
and revised it many times over, Claude could never put the painting in a
meaningful whole; and this depressed him severely. Claude could never recover
from his humiliating failure until the end, and it ruined Christine’s life too
in the process.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>The Masterpiece </i>(originally <i>L’Oeuvre</i> or <i>The Work</i>)<i> </i>is simply
Zola’s way to criticize Parisian arts society. Many of the artists were so
obsessed to be famous and a master of their art, that they ignored their
private lives, happiness and families. They were never satisfied with their
works, and worked madly day and night to create such a masterpiece; often drove
themselves to severe despair or even madness. But on the other hand, there was
also the Salon with its overwhelming tasks to sort art works from hundreds of
artists. The Selection Committee would decide whether their works deserved to
be hung for the Salon or not. This committee would walk together from rooms to
rooms, inspect each painting, and vote for its inclusion or exclusion. </div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XhMVESr8APU/UWUpoOjdlnI/AAAAAAAANYE/VYVRBP9rzrc/s1600/masterpiece2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XhMVESr8APU/UWUpoOjdlnI/AAAAAAAANYE/VYVRBP9rzrc/s400/masterpiece2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">People gathered to discuss Cezanne's painting,<br />
might it be some kind of the Salon?<br />
[<a href="http://www.studyblue.com/notes/note/n/19th-century-french-art-final-pt2/deck/193416">source</a>]</td></tr>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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I can
imagine how tiring the task might have been, and in those pressured events, who
could maintain their fair judgment all the time? It was more than possible that
a painting of a talented artist would be rejected just because it’s different
from the current trend. And don’t forget, there were many collectors who did
not understand arts and just took whatever the Salon exhibited as the most
valuable paintings to collect. In short, there were so many small wrong aspects
in the Salon exhibitions running by men who might not have had enough artistic sense
to execute their jobs, while these aspects might have influenced an artist’s
failure or fortune, wealthy or poverty.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Although <i>The Masterpiece</i> would not shock you like
<i>L’Assommoir</i> or entertain you like <i>Germinal</i>, but it’s enough to take us to
see the ugly struggles beneath the beautiful works of arts! Zola wanted also to
make us see how a child who was born from generations of drunkards might be
deformed either mentally or physically. Claude, in particular, had the problem
of madness attack every time he was exposed to an intense emotion. The art was
the dearest thing of his existence; it’s his life, it’s his soul….</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>“What was Art, after
all, if not simply giving out what you have inside you?”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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But that was
also one thing that triggered his madness, and when the madness came, it would
dominate him such, that his painting would be one disaster. Oh, poor Claude!
The only one which made him happy, caused his ruin. Genius in brain but
corrupted in soul….and that was not his fault! It’s his parents’; but most of
all, it’s the society…Paris of the late 19<sup>th</sup> century, under the
Second French Empire.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Although the
novel has a rather hopeless tone, it actually marks the turning of the century.
The birth of impressionism in arts—and painting is only one of them, because it
would change architecture, sculpture, literature, and music as well—would certainly
bring a new change to the civilization. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Four stars
for The Masterpiece, a very interesting and educating novel! And thank you
Monsieur Zola for ever writing it….</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>“What price glory,
then, the thing we’d die for?”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>“In life everything
comes to an end, but nothing is ever repeated.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-50153474022786127172013-04-11T22:18:00.000-07:002013-04-18T22:18:54.640-07:00Claude Lantier in The Masterpiece<br />
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Claude is the main character in Zola’s <i>The Masterpiece</i>; he
was a shy guy who liked painting but disliked women. One day Claude met
Christine, fell madly in love with her, then married her. But it turned out
that Claude could not control more than one passion at the same time; that when
he was enjoying his love with Christine, he could not drag himself to produce any
serious painting. Then, when Christine offered herself to model for his
painting, Claude began to stay away from his wife, and began fallen in love with
his painting—or in this case, the woman in his painting. Seems that, in Claude,
one passion would dominate another; but it was a madness which dominated Claude
to his end.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I am still wondering whether it’d be much better if Claude
has never been in love with Christine at all, or it would be all the same
whether he married her or not, because the madness was already there? Maybe
Claude was right after all for not liking women, maybe that way he could focus
only on painting. But would have it altered his future to the better? I don’t
know, maybe not….. </div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yw7JGRqI0Os/UWN_X-cTGlI/AAAAAAAANWI/0_YYHeSVFaM/s1600/claude-lantier1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Yw7JGRqI0Os/UWN_X-cTGlI/AAAAAAAANWI/0_YYHeSVFaM/s1600/claude-lantier1.jpg" /></a></div>
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Claude seems to be a man with an unbalanced emotion. He was,
in fact, a talented and skilled painter—all his friends admitted that—and he
was genius too. Claude with several of his friends—young painters—started a new
generation of impressionism. He had set a new style of painting, and although
his paintings kept being refused by the Salon (a public exhibition which
influenced the public taste of arts), many young artists followed his example in
putting natures in their paintings. But strangely, he who had set the style,
could never produce any single masterpiece till the end. Why? Again….I put the
blame to his unbalanced emotion.</div>
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<br /></div>
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It’s a pity to see such a talented young man must meet a sad
end. Claude was always very kind to his friends, and in a way he still loved
Christine till the end. His only problem was he could not cope with himself, he
could not control his emotion—when his paintings were refused, he would be so
enraged, and when he poured out his feelings in painting, he became severely obsessed.
Claude did not possess self-control of himself, and at last his repeatedly
failure ruined him completely.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b-xd0wY2nYc/UWN_wQwxHxI/AAAAAAAANWQ/QIV7FpOgQ4k/s1600/claude-lantier2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="236" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-b-xd0wY2nYc/UWN_wQwxHxI/AAAAAAAANWQ/QIV7FpOgQ4k/s320/claude-lantier2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bernard Fresson as Claude in L'oeuvre, 1967</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-3381890376419285562013-04-06T21:45:00.000-07:002013-04-18T22:24:31.095-07:00Between Work & Success - The Masterpiece<br />
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The
Masterpiece is called the most autobiographical novel of Zola’s Rougon-Macquart
series. Zola’s personage was reflected from Pierre Sandoz, a kind hearted
novelist, a best friend of Claude Lantier—the protagonist of this book—who represented
Paul Cézanne or Claude Monet. The quote I am featuring this week is from
Sandoz, </div>
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<br /></div>
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</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-btl1KfZK5NY/UXDLwJnBlUI/AAAAAAAANe8/5Q06S45yeGk/s1600/masterpiece2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-btl1KfZK5NY/UXDLwJnBlUI/AAAAAAAANe8/5Q06S45yeGk/s320/masterpiece2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">“<i>So long as you can say to yourself that you’ve
put your whole life into your work, that you expect neither immediate justice
nor even serious appreciation, that you’re working without hope of any kind,
simply because the urge to work beats in your body like your heart, because you
can’t help it, you can let yourself die happy and console yourself with the
illusion that you’ll be appreciated one day…</i>”</span></blockquote>
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I can’t
agree more with it. Sandoz here wanted to console Claude who was depressed
because the world rejected his works, and he felt himself useless. The fact is,
we might be different from others, we might not be with the mainstream, but
that doesn’t mean that we are not as good as they are. I believe that success
comes not from the world’s appreciation, but from the happiness which our work
had brought us. As long as we can do what we want which came from our heart,
make the best of it, to achieve what is right for us, then I’ll call that ‘success’.
To be praised by others would be a bonus, but without that, we can claim that
we have served our purpose very well…. and die happily, as Sandoz put it…</div>
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<br /></div>
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Do you
agree?</div>
Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-65191773839598045662013-04-05T21:11:00.000-07:002013-04-18T21:12:05.558-07:00Sunset Views From The Masterpiece<br />
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In <i>The Masterpiece</i>, Émile Zola spoiled me
with his beautiful descriptions of Paris in the end of 19<sup>th</sup> century landscapes.
As I always amazed at nature beauties, I am trying to capture here some images
which transform the beauties from Zola’s words to more vivid imagination. These
passages were taken from chapter 3 (p. 95-96) where Claude was enjoying
afternoon strolls together with Christine. While the pictures might not
represent the scene accurately, they could still help us to imagine the scenes,
while savouring Zola’s beautiful words….</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #741b47;">“<i>The lovely sunsets they watched on those
weekly strolls along the Seine, when the sun shone ahead of them all the way
through the many lively aspects of embankment life: the Seine itself, the
lights, and shadows dancing on its face, the amusing little shops, each one as
warm as a greenhouse, the pots of flowers on the seedsmen’s stalls, the
deafening twitter from the birds-shops, and all the joyous confusion of sounds
and colours that makes the waterfront the everlasting youth of any city.</i>”</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EE5JomQLB-E/UVvnCQivjMI/AAAAAAAANUY/uEJm82OnPqI/s1600/masterpiece-sunset-seine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EE5JomQLB-E/UVvnCQivjMI/AAAAAAAANUY/uEJm82OnPqI/s400/masterpiece-sunset-seine.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://www.parisperfect.com/apartments-for-rent-in-paris/cote-de-nuits.php">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47;"><b>“<i>One evening, in an unexpected shower, the
sun, as it reappeared through the falling rain, lit up every cloud in the sky,
making the rain overhead glowed like liquid fire shot through with pink and
blue</i>.”</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-etlV8ldyfk4/UVvnlxsHkpI/AAAAAAAANUg/61GlxfrBT7c/s1600/masterpiece-sunset-pink-blue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-etlV8ldyfk4/UVvnlxsHkpI/AAAAAAAANUg/61GlxfrBT7c/s400/masterpiece-sunset-pink-blue.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://www.girlwithcamera.ca/2008/08/sunset-through-rain-and-glass/">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47;"><b><o:p> </o:p>“<i>On days when the sky was clear, the sun like
a ball of fire would sink majestically into a waveless lake of sapphire."</i></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QPVA9UcGYuQ/UVvn_uTaYsI/AAAAAAAANUo/LfAP3DFUGrs/s1600/masterpiece-sunset-lake1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QPVA9UcGYuQ/UVvn_uTaYsI/AAAAAAAANUo/LfAP3DFUGrs/s400/masterpiece-sunset-lake1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://www.layoutsparks.com/pictures/lake-1">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
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</div>
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<b><span style="color: #741b47;"><i>"For a moment, as it passed behind the black
dome of the Institut, it was horned like a moon on the wane; then as its disc
reddened to deepest purple it would pass out of sight in the depths of the lake
transformed into a pool of blood</i>.”</span></b></div>
<br />
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<b style="color: #741b47; text-align: center;"><br /></b></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9c6E2bSVu-k/UVvoqE4LDnI/AAAAAAAANUw/6MpaoFa3F8E/s1600/masterpiece-sunset-blood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9c6E2bSVu-k/UVvoqE4LDnI/AAAAAAAANUw/6MpaoFa3F8E/s400/masterpiece-sunset-blood.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/216179-sunset-lake-martin.html">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b style="color: #741b47; text-align: center;"><br /></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="color: #741b47;">“<i>But the most theatrical effects, the most
magnificent transformation scenes were only produced in a cloudy sky. Then, according
to the whim of the prevailing wind, they would see waves of sulphur breaking on
boulders of coral, palaces, towers of buildings piled up in a blazing heap or
crumbling down as torrents of lave poured through the gaps in their walls</i>.”</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q3QU-cgjyiw/UVvo-ULv9aI/AAAAAAAANU4/wUnu7-kbxPo/s1600/masterpiece-sunset-cloudy-sky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q3QU-cgjyiw/UVvo-ULv9aI/AAAAAAAANU4/wUnu7-kbxPo/s400/masterpiece-sunset-cloudy-sky.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://duzzn.com/lists/admin/beautiful-sunset-and-sky-photos-in-hdr/">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="color: #741b47;">“<i>Or, at other times, the sun already out of
sight, hidden by a veil of mist, would suddenly break through with such a
mighty thrust of light that a tracery of sparks would be sent shooting clear across
the sky like a flight of golden arrows.</i>”</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #741b47;"><br /></span></b></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dN97KBr1m40/UVvrJ__-ZJI/AAAAAAAANVI/8SSrV54v99s/s1600/masterpiece-sunset-mist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dN97KBr1m40/UVvrJ__-ZJI/AAAAAAAANVI/8SSrV54v99s/s400/masterpiece-sunset-mist.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/50718005@N08/galleries/72157629987726856">source</a>]</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Don't those gorgeous views make you want to visit Paris? In 19th century?.... I do!</div>
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<br /></div>
Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-39269162539835846182013-04-02T21:08:00.000-07:002013-04-18T21:12:37.185-07:00Émile Zola Mini Bio & Bibliography<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: justify;">On this
date (April 2nd, 2013), 173 years ago, a baby boy was born in Paris. He was named Émile François Zola,
the only child of an Italian engineer. “Zolla” in Italian means ‘cloth of
earth’. He was four years old when his father died, leaving his mother as a
widow with meager pension. His mother prepared him to have a law career, but
Zola failed in his Baccalauréat exam. Before entering journalism and beginning
his writing career, Zola worked as clerk in shipping firm and in sales
department of a publisher. Among his first published works is<i> <b>Contes
à Ninon</b></i>, published when he was 24 years old. When the publication of
his next semi-autobiographical novel: <b><i>Claude’s Confession</i></b> (1865) caught
police’s attention, the publisher office fired him.</span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UqFlf5gumLs/UVji9Ga094I/AAAAAAAANSU/vpjO7YlEuBM/s1600/zola1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UqFlf5gumLs/UVji9Ga094I/AAAAAAAANSU/vpjO7YlEuBM/s1600/zola1.jpg" /></a></div>
Zola’s first
major novel was <b><i>Therese Raquin</i></b> (1867). In his 28 years of age, Zola started to
build the complete layout of his future series of novels traces the
"environmental" influences of violence, alcohol and prostitution
which became more prevalent during the second wave of the Industrial Revolution
during the second empire of France. <b><i>Les Rougon-Macquart</i></b> was the title of
the series, depicted—or rather examined—two branches of a family: the
respectable (legitimate) Rougons and the disreputable (illegitimate) Macquarts
for five generations. Zola: "<i>I want
to portray, at the outset of a century of liberty and truth, a family that
cannot restrain itself in its rush to possess all the good things that progress
is making available and is derailed by its own momentum, the fatal convulsions
that accompany the birth of a new world.</i>" </div>
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<br /></div>
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During the
Franco-Prussian War in 1870 Zola and his newly married wife, Alexandrine moved
temporarily to Marseilles. And during that period, Zola worked as journalist
for several different newspapers. Right after that Zola began to write his
Rougon-Macquart series.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The complete
twenty series of Les Rougon Macquart (the years are years of publication):</div>
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<br /></div>
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#1 (1871) - <b>The Fortune of the Rougons</b></div>
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#2 (1872) - <b>The Kill</b> (<i>La Curée</i>)</div>
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#3 (1873) - <b>The Belly of Paris</b></div>
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#4 (1874) - <b>The Conquest of Plassans</b> (<i>La Concuête de Plassans</i>)</div>
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#5 (1875) - <b>The Sin of Father Mouret</b> (<i>La Foute de l'Abbé Mouret</i>)</div>
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#6 (1876) - <b>His Excellency Eugène Rougon</b> (Son
Excellence Eugène Rougon)</div>
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#7 (1877) - <b>L’Assommoir</b> (The Drinking Den)</div>
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#8 (1878) - <b>A Page of Love</b> (<i>Une Page d'Amour</i>)</div>
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#9 (1880) - <b>Nana</b></div>
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#10 (1882) –
<b>Pot Luck</b> (<i>Pot-Bouille</i>)</div>
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#11 (1883) –
<b>The Ladies’ Paradise</b> (<i>Au Bonheur des Dames</i>)</div>
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#12 (1884) –
<b>The Joy of Life</b> (<i>Le Joie de Vivre</i>)</div>
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#13 (1885) –
<b>Germinal</b></div>
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#14 (1886) –
<b>The Masterpiece</b> </div>
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#15 (1887) –
<b>The Earth</b></div>
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#16 (1888) -
<b>The Dream</b></div>
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#17 (1890) –
<b>The Beast in Man</b> (<i>La Bête Humaine</i>)</div>
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#18 (1891) –
<b>Money</b> (<i>L'Argent</i>)</div>
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#19 (1892) –
<b>La Débâcle</b></div>
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#20 (1893) –
<b>Doctor Pascal</b> (<i>Le Docteur Pascal</i>)<br />
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lKxX7PZ0xcE/UVjjoMupuuI/AAAAAAAANSc/J92Aj8g1Jxs/s1600/zola2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lKxX7PZ0xcE/UVjjoMupuuI/AAAAAAAANSc/J92Aj8g1Jxs/s320/zola2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paul Alexis reading a manuscript to Zola,<br />
painted by Paul Cezanne</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
During those
years, Zola had became a political reporter (1871); held his First
Impressionist exhibition (1874) and Second Impressionist exhibition (1876);
took Jeanne Rozerot as his mistress; got a baby girl from Jeanne, named Denise
(1889); got a baby boy—Jacques—also from Denise (1891). On 1894, at the same
year that Alfred Dreyfus—a Jewish artillery officer in French army—was found
guilty by a court martial, Zola published his first novel of <b><i>Three
Cities</i> trilogy</b>: <b><i>Lourdes</i></b>. It was followed soon by <b><i>Rome</i>
</b>on 1896, and <b><i>Paris</i></b> on 1898. </div>
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<br /></div>
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On January
13<sup>th</sup>, 1898 Zola published his article <b><i>J’Accuse</i></b> in defense of
Dreyfus who was wrongly convicted as treason which was caused
by anti-semitism in the highest levels of French Army. J’Accuse was an opened
letter addressed to the President of the Republic which was published in the
front page of L’Aurore newspaper. By publishing J’Accuse, Zola has brought his
career to a major risk. On the other hand, as Zola was a leading French thinker
at that time, J’Accuse formed a major turning-point on the affair, and it had divided
France deeply between the reactionary army and church and the more liberal
commercial society. The article is also widely marked in France as the most
prominent manifestation of the new power of the intellectuals (writers,
artists, academicians) in shaping public opinion, the media and the state.</div>
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rpoxuA5RXCk/UVjkg05MG8I/AAAAAAAANSk/ItndboBwwCM/s1600/zola3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="287" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rpoxuA5RXCk/UVjkg05MG8I/AAAAAAAANSk/ItndboBwwCM/s400/zola3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Streets in Paris named after Emile Zola & Alfred Dreyfus</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
Zola was
brought to trial on 7 February 1898 and was convicted on 23 February; however
he fled to England rather than went into jail. After his return to Paris, Zola
immediately published first novel in his new series <b><i>Four Gospels</i></b>: <b><i>Fecundity</i></b>
(Fécondité); followed by <b><i>Toil</i></b> (Travail) on 1901. The third
novel, <b><i>Truth</i></b> (Vérité) was published posthumously in 1903, while <b><i>Justice</i></b>
would have become the fourth if only Zola have survived then to finish it…..</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
J’Accuse was
proved to bring huge risk to Zola, as he was found dead on September 29<sup>th </sup>from
carbon monoxide poisoning caused by an improperly ventilated chimney. Decades
later a Parisian roofer claimed on his deathbed to have closed the chimney for
political reasons, which was believed to be instructed by Zola’s enemies. He was
buried in Montmartre cemetery; however on June 4<sup>th</sup> 1908 his remains
were relocated to the Panthéon, where he shares a crypt with other French big
authors: Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
~~~~~~~</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
It was a
kind of mini biography of Émile Zola, one of the most prominent contributors of
Naturalism in 19<sup>th</sup> century and a major figure in the political
liberalization of France. Looking at his bibliography, I was amazed by how
productive Zola had written his books; he published one book every year on average,
to say nothing of his persistence to write the twenty novels of Rougon-Macquart
series based on his layout for twenty years! Zola wrote each of his books after thorough researches to describe the settings in details. For <i>Germinal</i>, for
example, he went to a mining, interviewed the miner and witnessed their risky
lives, and examining their livings. No wonder, we would feel as if we were
presence in every scene of his books. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
In comparing
between his work and Balzac’s, Zola said: “<i>I
don't want to describe the contemporary society, but a single family, showing
how the race is modified by the environment. (...) My big task is to be
strictly naturalist, strictly physiologist</i>.” <a href="http://severalfourmany.wordpress.com/">Jim</a>, one of
Zoladdiction participant, posted an <a href="http://severalfourmany.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/the-grand-structure-of-rougon-macquart/">interesting analysis</a> over the
taxonomy aspect in Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series. If you could not decide which
book you should read first at a start, or whether you must read them in
publication order or not, Jim’s post would help you to consider. For you who,
like me, decided to read in random order, the post provides information you need
to know in order to see Zola’s whole perspective in writing the series.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
I am a fan
of Zola, although I have only read three of his novels so far. That’s why I
host the <a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2013/04/zoladdiction-master-post.html">Zoladdiction </a>event, to encourage myself to read more (and to buy more
in the end) of Zola. I plan to read at least all of the twenty novels in
Rougon-Macquart series, and hopefully all the others too.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">JOYEUX ANNIVERSAIRE MONSIEUR ÉMILE ZOLA!</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #990000;">2 April 1840 – 2 April 2013</span></div>
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2013/04/zoladdiction-master-post.html"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3NPnetr8564/UVjfKlv0nuI/AAAAAAAANSE/hI5MboTxOBQ/s320/zoladdiction-button1.JPG" width="250" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-25837325463664576552012-09-13T23:45:00.000-07:002013-02-05T23:46:06.067-08:00Maheude: A Character Study from Germinal<span style="text-align: justify;">Among many female characters on </span><a href="http://emile-zola-blog.blogspot.com/2012/08/review-germinal.html">Germinal</a><span style="text-align: justify;">, the most
interesting one is Maheude. Maheude is a wife of a mine worker named Maheu.
Actually Maheude was only in her beginning of forty years old, however poverty,
child laboring and hard-working has made her body loose and looked like she was
fifty. Maheude represented women on the lower social class in 19</span><sup style="text-align: justify;">th</sup><span style="text-align: justify;">
century (in France in this case). Like other women, Maheude went to work at the
pit since she was very young. Then after having seven children, her strength
was decreasing and became not too productive for the Company so that she was
forced to stay at home. Being the household manager was not an easy thing.
Maheude should manage to feed ten mouths (the father, the mother, the
grandfather and seven children) from whatever they earned from the mine, and it
was sooo very little that they often must ask for credit from the groceries
store.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In the early chapters, I have asked myself why the Maheus
kept ‘producing’ children if they could hardly feed them all? I realized then
that part of the purpose of having children was to bring home as much money as
they can get by sending the children to pit when they grown up enough to do it.
I know it sounds weird and unfair, but that’s how they survived against the
extreme poverty at that time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MRivb93R_d8/UE71pdedQqI/AAAAAAAAHvc/AhIoFHlvjs4/s1600/maheude1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MRivb93R_d8/UE71pdedQqI/AAAAAAAAHvc/AhIoFHlvjs4/s320/maheude1.jpg" width="213" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maheude in 'Germinal' movie</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Maheude was a woman with a strong character and a better
moral compared to other women around the pit. Despite of her poverty, she still
had a pride not to beg for anything, a principle that she persistently hold to; for Maheude, hoping for other’s generosity by telling them how hard your life was,
was not begging. When Maheude received a bag of fine clothes from a rich
family, while what she needed most was food, she could not ask for money to buy
food, because it would be begging. The shopkeeper of a grocery store near the
settlements was a playboy, he used the women’s poverty for his own benefit.
When a woman asked for credit, he would grant it if she or her daughter agreed to sleep with
him. When Maheude came with no money to have groceries, she was forced to give
the man a false promise of sending for her daughter Catherine to him
sometime, a promise that she never kept and resulted to no more credits from
the store afterwards, even when the families left in hunger.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
In short, it was Maheude that protected and supported the family
in the whole story. Unfortunately, it was also Maheude who suffered the most
from the miners’ strike. <span style="color: #cc0000;">**spoiler alert**</span> Maheude lost, one after another, her
husband and three children, while another son got limped from an accident,
which meant he brought home less money. Here you would see Maheude’s extremely
strong personality; instead of breaking down, she managed to keep living her
life. <span style="color: #cc0000;">**spoiler ends**</span> She knew how to put first things first. Although at
first Maheude—in her rage towards the Company who put them all into extreme
poverty—detested the idea of going back to work until the Company has fulfilled
their requisition, in the end she obliged to act the opposite. Not only letting
the children back to work, Maheude herself must get to work, even if it was the
lightest job with the lowest wage in order to survive.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W9dGpkO0IXQ/UE719_J7joI/AAAAAAAAHvk/T1NfBGyQdwg/s1600/maheude-illustration.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W9dGpkO0IXQ/UE719_J7joI/AAAAAAAAHvk/T1NfBGyQdwg/s320/maheude-illustration.jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">© Bridgeman Art Library / Bibliotheque <br />Nationale,
Paris, France / <br />Archives Charmet [<a href="http://www.artfinder.com/work/stupide-la-maheude-se-baissa-illustration-from-germinal-by-emile/in/tag.working-class/">source</a>]</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
What I like most of her was despite the great suffers she
must endured because of the strike, Maheude never hated <a href="http://emile-zola-blog.blogspot.com/2012/09/etienne-lantier-character-study-from.html">Étienne</a> who had
transplanted the idea of striking in the miners' minds at first place. She did
not treat him badly after the event, like others did, she kept the friendship
with him. Other than that, it’s only Maheude—a woman who suffered the most—who
still hold a vague hope of a better future, who rejected to surrender just like
that. It is Maheude who could see that it was just the beginning of something
bigger than that, the germination!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I would always see Maheude as a very brave woman, who never
lost hopes for the better, and hold to her principle to the last. She was poor
in life but not poor in soul.</div>
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<br /></div>
Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-12491396981760790782012-09-06T23:33:00.000-07:002013-02-05T23:46:19.010-08:00Étienne Lantier: A Character Study from Germinal<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Étienne was the protagonist in this book about mine workers
in their struggle under the bourgeoisie’s power. Étienne was the son of
<a href="http://emile-zola-blog.blogspot.com/2012/03/gervaise-character-study-from.html">Gervaise</a> and Lantier in <a href="http://emile-zola-blog.blogspot.com/2012/04/review-lassommoir.html">L’Assommoir</a>, born from the drunkard parents.
Without any money he came to the settlement after having thumped his former
boss. Étienne, despite of his poverty and unlike any other miners, was quite an
educated man. He liked to discuss politics with his comrade and read a lot of
books, especially books about socialism. And not only reading, he was thirsty
of all the new knowledge and absorbed them all in his leisure time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Although not described in detail in this book, I choose to
imagine Étienne as a quite handsome young man with a polite manner. He had a
shyness towards a woman, that when it’s obvious that Catherine (one of the
female protagonist) also liked him, Étienne still wordlessly in front of her.
In short, Étienne was an outsider. Not only that he came from other town, but
he had a manner of self respect and of ‘higher level’. Maybe if his parents did
not that poor, he could have been educated and being one of the bourgeoisies.
It was he who first felt the need to do something against the unfair treatment
towards the mine workers, while the workers themselves had been accustomed to
submission and passive obedience.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lT7BRyXOpts/UEVsrPoF5eI/AAAAAAAAHmw/VawgApnTFWk/s1600/etienne1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lT7BRyXOpts/UEVsrPoF5eI/AAAAAAAAHmw/VawgApnTFWk/s1600/etienne1.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
So with the combination of his concerns and his knowledge,
he started to share his ideas about demanding their rights against the bosses.
Then suddenly Étienne became a leader (and I imagine that he seemed to fit that
position, with his handsome face, educated mind and he learned fast the skill
of effectively talking to a crowd). Little leader at first, then the snow ball
rolled, and there he was, ready to lead a strike, a big strike of thousands of
men and women! Here I then saw his weakness. He became proud of himself, he
enjoyed the sense of being a leader, of overpowering his comrades, when
everybody listened to what he said, and did what he told them. He overestimated
his own capability though, with his only short self-education, he just thrown
the theories into practices, never having thoroughly calculated and planned his
movement. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I don’t know whether alcoholism was hereditary, but Étienne
noticed himself that when his body has contaminated from certain numbers of
alcohol, he would lose control, and brutality would came to him out of nowhere.
That was why he thumped his former boss, and that’s why he lost his temper
during the strike. Was that because he inherited some bad cells from his
drunkard parents? I don’t know…. Through the entire story I have been hoping
that Étienne won’t fall at the temptation of drinking. Let him always be in his
consciousness that had prevented many killing attempt from his comrades.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
One thing I like from him was how he loved and treated
Catherine. Unlike his comrades, Étienne treated women tenderly, he had a
respect for them. Especially with Catherine, although he knew that men often
bumped at their women just like that, and although he knew that Catherine had a
crush on him and would be submissive enough to him, he never forced her. It
might partly because of his shyness, but I prefer to believe that somehow
Étienne had a respect to Catherine because he really loved her. Étienne never blamed Catherine for choosing Chaval,
and on the day of the disaster on the pit, Étienne—despite of his decision not
to go down again and calling them who did that a coward—decided finally to go
working only to protect Catherine from the angry Chaval.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0iOpHMGDyUc/UEVtmBLYZbI/AAAAAAAAHnA/Qy4kbTAP0V8/s1600/etienne2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="154" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0iOpHMGDyUc/UEVtmBLYZbI/AAAAAAAAHnA/Qy4kbTAP0V8/s320/etienne2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
And when the disaster came, Étienne always protected
Catherine, covering her with life as best as he could. How sweet those scenes
were….</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
What I love the most of him was that he always found new
hope from the bitter falls. People do make mistakes, but at the end it’s how
they do out of it that’s important. When he knew that the comrades turned away
from him with hatred, he did not give himself long time to regret, he knew what
he must do, going from there to renew his knowledge and to make himself useful
at other place.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-68768506357467843622012-08-31T23:29:00.000-07:002013-02-05T23:30:00.682-08:00[Review] Germinal<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m8a-m8ycMUE/UDXnRHf0GJI/AAAAAAAAHXc/lRZ9hsFzCvs/s1600/germinal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m8a-m8ycMUE/UDXnRHf0GJI/AAAAAAAAHXc/lRZ9hsFzCvs/s320/germinal.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
Germinal is
my third book of Zola, and I can say that it already becomes one of my
favorites. Germinal is not only a story about the classic fight between workers
and company, the poor and the have, it is also about the agony of poor working
class. Germinal was written from Étienne Lantier’s (Gervaise’ son in
<a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2012/04/lassommoir.html">L’Assommoir</a>) point of view. He was an engine man came to a coal mining town Montsou
to find a job. From his eyes, Zola took us to watch the sorrows of coal miners
who worked hard under poor conditions for very small wages which could hardly
support their poor lives. And for generations this condition has never changed;
and they seemed to just accept it; to be overpowered by the bourgeoisie and the
industrial machines called capitalism. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
“<i>No matter how hard we might struggle, we
probably wouldn’t change anything. The best is to try and live honestly in the
place in which the good God has put us.</i>” ~Maheude, p. 86</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
Until
Étienne—a quite educated young man—appeared from nowhere, mingled with the
settlemen, and little by little affected their way of thinking. They soon put
him into their lead, with a dream to dethrone the wealth and to regain their
freedom and rights. The question was, what was the best method to carry it; anarchism?
Long term evolution? Or strikes? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
Germinal was
a combination of humanity, Darwinism and socialism, packed beautifully with
metaphors and romance. This is the third Zola’s I’ve read so far, and compared
to <a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2011/11/therese-raquin.html">Therese Raquin</a> and <u><a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2012/04/lassommoir.html">L’Assommoir</a></u> (sorry, the reviews are still in Bahasa Indonesia). Germinal was less distressing and
less striking. Yes, Zola still described poverty, hunger and moral degradation
brutally to the most extremes, yet he still slipped a hope, a bigger hope for a
better future in the end. Germinal was only the beginning, the seeds sowing of
workers’ battle against the oppression of capitalism. Germinal would show the
world that there is a possibility for the weak to fight the strong. It only
took time and refinement, and one day the seeds that were now germinating would
harvest perfectly and change the earth.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
What
interested me the most is the metaphors Zola used throughout this story. First
of all, the way he described the surroundings in the mine from the eyes of the
newcomer Étienne. Zola often used the terms of animal’s digestion in describing
the mine pit.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
“<i>And the Voureux, at the bottom of its hole,
in contractions those of an evil beast, continued to grind away, breathing with
a heavier and slower respiration, appearing troubled by its painful digestion
of human flesh.</i>”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
“<i>The
shaft swallowed men by mouthfuls of twenty or thirty, and with so easy a gulp
that it seemed not to feel them go down.</i>”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bySI_tZGqxs/UD8FPAUWHbI/AAAAAAAAHgs/WucQkMz_nvw/s1600/germinal-strike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bySI_tZGqxs/UD8FPAUWHbI/AAAAAAAAHgs/WucQkMz_nvw/s320/germinal-strike.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I only
think, that it is the way Zola described capitalism which swallowed people and
crushed them in poverty just like a monster digested human flesh; and what a
beautiful metaphor they are indeed!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
Zola also
closed the story in a very beautiful and touching way. The rescue drama in the
tumbling pit near the end of the story was really breathtaking, but approaching
the end it was also warming my heart with love. And the final ending was
superb! I love <a href="http://klasikfanda.blogspot.com/2012/08/germinal-classic-challenge-august-quote.html">the final quote</a> which brought a new hope for a better
future, and look how Zola crafted it with nature’s elements of a new spring for
the world, the most beautiful metaphor from this book.</div>
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Five stars
(obviously) for Germinal, which have just become my new favorite!</div>
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Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-75993624369702698332012-08-27T23:50:00.000-07:002013-02-06T00:00:53.170-08:00The Seeds Are Germinating in Germinal<br />
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I have just
finished reading <b>Germinal</b>, and
LOVE it so much! This time it’s not only distressing, but Zola slipped a
hope for a better world at the end of the novel. It is reflected on the ending—and
I found myself read this quote over and over again, always feels warm after
that. And I also enjoyed Zola’s beautiful metaphors here…. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“<span style="color: #38761d;"><i><b>Now the April sun, in the open sky, was
shining in its glory, warming the earth as it went into labour. From its
fertile flanks life was leaping forth, buds were bursting into green leaves,
and the fields were quivering with the growth of the grass. On every side seeds
were swelling, stretching out, cracking the plain, filled by the need of heat
and light. An overflow of sap flowed with whispering voices, the sound of the
germs expanded in a great kiss. Again and again, more and more distinctly, as
though they had come right up to the soil, the comrades were hammering. In the
fiery rays of the sun, on this youthful morning, the country was pregnant with
this rumbling. Men were springing forth, a black avenging army, germinating
slowly in the furrows, growing up for the harvests of the next century, and
their germination would soon overturn the earth</b></i>.</span>”</span> ~p. 478 (closing quote).</blockquote>
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Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-83094797263644848632012-04-01T20:20:00.000-07:002012-04-01T20:21:37.784-07:00[Review] L'Assommoir<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-grytEXqk0Es/T3VRJHmDbdI/AAAAAAAAF1Q/6cpUfY892U8/s1600/lassommoir.jpg" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; "><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 210px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-grytEXqk0Es/T3VRJHmDbdI/AAAAAAAAF1Q/6cpUfY892U8/s320/lassommoir.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5725571718370782674" /></a><span><div style="font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Zola called this (book) '</span><i style="font-size: 100%; ">the first novel about the common people that does not lie</i><span style="font-size: 100%; ">'.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Dan memang benar, itulah yang kudapat setelah menamatkan buku setebal 440 halaman ini. L'Assommoir sendiri adalah kata dalam bahasa Prancis yang artinya 'rumah minum' atau dram shop dalam bahasa Inggrisnya. L'Assommoir ini banyak terdapat di jalanan kota Paris, terutama di distrik tempat kelas pekerja tinggal, di abad 19. Lewat L'Assommoir, Émile Zola ingin menunjukkan bagaimana kemiskinan dapat berakibat pada hidup kaum pekerja itu.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Gervaise adalah tokoh sentral di buku ini, seorang wanita muda yang cantik namun miskin. Di kamar sempit di sebuah hotel bobrok di pinggiran Paris, ia tinggal bersama kekasihnya—Lantier—yang malas dan kerjanya hanya bersenang-senang menghabiskan gaji Gervaise. Ketika Lantier akhirnya mencampakkan Gervaise, Gervaise pun terpaksa bekerja sebagai buruh cuci di sebuah 'rumah cuci' (laundress) untuk menghidupi dirinya dan kedua anaknya yang masih kecil. Beruntung bagi Gervaise, seorang tukang atap (roofer) jatuh cinta kepadanya. Dan setelah pendekatan yang tekun dan makan waktu lama, Gervaise pun akhirnya setuju menikah dengan si tukang atap yang bernama Coupeau.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Coupeau adalah pria yang ideal untuk seorang suami. Seorang pekerja yang berdedikasi dan mencintai pekerjaannya, juga seorang suami yang mencintai dan menghargai pendapat istrinya. Bahkan ketika Gervaise memimpikan membuka sendiri sebuah laundress di gedung bekas toko, Coupeau pun mendukungnya. Dengan tabungan ditambah pinjaman dari tetangga, akhirnya Gervaise menjadi pemilik sebuah <a href="http://emile-zola-blog.blogspot.com/2012/03/laundress-on-lassommoir.html">laundress impiannya</a> yang telah ia atur sedemikian rupa sehingga menjadi rumah cuci baru yang menarik penduduk di sekitarnya. Tak lama kemudian, laundress Gervaise mencapai sukses. Dan seperti biasa di pemukiman seperti itu, para tetangga mulai sirik akan keberhasilan Gervaise, terutama keluarga Lorilleux (Mme. Lorilleux adalah kakak Coupeau). Semua itu diperparah dengan sikap Gervaise dan Coupeau yang dengan amat kentara memamerkan kekayaan mereka dengan mengadakan pesta makan malam yang mewah (meski pun mereka harus menghabiskan tabungan demi membayar makanan dan anggur mewah).</span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Namun kebahagiaan itu tak bertahan lama. Suatu hari, disaksikan Gervaise dan Nana—anak perempuan mereka—Coupeau terjatuh dari atap ketika sedang bekerja. Kecelakaan itu adalah awal malapetaka keluarga mereka. Terkurung di tempat tidur dan tak mampu bekerja, ternyata membuat Coupeau langsung terpuruk. Begitu ia sudah mampu berjalan, alih-alih mulai mencari pekerjaan, ia malah berjalan tak tentu arah dan akhirnya berbelok masuk ke rumah minum dan mulai menyukai minuman keras—hal yang dulu menjadi pantangannya sebagai tukang atap yang profesional dan menjadi kebanggaannya bahwa ia tak mempan terhadap godaan minuman keras. Dan karena Coupeau tak bekerja, tentu saja ia jajan minuman dari uang saku yang diberikan Gervaise. Di sinilah kesalahan awal Gervaise, karena ia begitu toleran dan percaya kepada suaminya, ia tenang-tenang saja ketika sang suami mulai suka minum-minum.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><blockquote style="text-align: justify; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">“<i>Gervaise laughed and shrugged her shoulders. What harm was there if her hubby was having a bit of fun? You shouldn’t keep your man on too tight a rein if you wanted peace at home. One thing led to another and before you knew it, you’d come to blows.</i>” ~hlm. 137.</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Sedikit demi sedikit, perlahan-lahan kebiasaan minum Coupeau bersama teman-temannya makin parah hingga akhirnya ia sama sekali berhenti bekerja. Hal itu mengakibatkan keuangan laundress carut-marut. Hutang mulai bertumpuk, para relasi mulai menjauh, dan akhirnya Gervaise dan laundressnya makin terpuruk. Satu hal yang turut mempercepat kejatuhannya adalah Lantier, sang kekasih lama yang kembali ke kehidupan keluarga Coupeau. Bukan dari Gervaise, namun justru undangan berasal dari Coupeau. Lantier si lintah itu akhirnya menempel dan menggerogoti rumah tangga mereka. Kalau itu belum cukup, anak perempuan mereka—Nana—yang karena kemiskinan dan pergaulan, akhirnya menjadi liar.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Hingga di sini, mungkin anda merasa tak asing dengan situasinya? Ya, kemiskinan memang selalu menghasilkan cerita nan serupa, di belahan bumi manapun, di abad berapapun. Di buku ini, secara khusus Zola memasukkan unsur minuman keras sebagai salah satu musuh para pekerja. Akibat nyata dari minuman keras ini pada tubuh manusia akan tergambar dengan sangat frontal pada diri Coupeau menjelang akhir buku. Membaca uraian Zola membuat siapa pun yang pernah minum minuman keras akan merasa ngeri!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Namun efek minuman keras ternyata tak hanya diderita oleh si peminum sendiri, namun juga keluarganya. Setelah menjadi peminum, perangai Coupeau berubah 180 derajat. Ia menjadi pemarah, picik, suka memukul Gervaise, dan tak lagi peduli pada dunia sekitar. Ia lah yang boleh dibilang menyeret seluruh keluarganya ke dalam kemiskinan yang paling rendah. Bahkan saat Gervaise yang kelaparan tak punya uang sepeserpun untuk makan, Coupeau malah menyuruh istrinya menjajakan dirinya sendiri di jalan kalau ia mau! Yang membuatku makin benci pada minuman keras, adalah para peminum cenderung mempengaruhi mereka yang masih sedikit memiliki akal sehat untuk tetap bekerja. Sudah berdosa, mereka menambah dosa dengan mengajak orang lain berdosa.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Pada akhirnya, nampak sangat jelas mengapa kemiskinan dan minuman keras seolah menjadi satu bagian yang terelakkan. Minuman keras adalah salah satu pelarian dari derita kemiskinan. Padahal hanya ada satu cara untuk berjuang melawan kemiskinan, yaitu dengan bekerja keras. Memang, meski sudah bekerja keras, banyak yang miskin tetap saja miskin. Tapi, bukankah meski miskin harta, mereka tetap kaya dalam hal moral? Banyak orang miskin yang akhirnya menjadi makin terpuruk karena tak mau berjuang, dan akhirnya menyalahkan nasib, pemerintah, orang lain, bahkan Tuhan.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><blockquote style="text-align: justify; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">“<i>Yes, they’d only themselves to blame if they sank lower every season. But you don’t ever admit things like that to yourself, especially not when you’re down in the gutter.</i>” ~hlm. 324.</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Kodrat manusia memang menghindari penderitaan, namun bukan berarti lari dari kenyataan membuat hidup lebih baik. Tokoh-tokoh di buku ini telah membuktikannya, mereka yang hendak lari dari kenyataan seperti Coupeau, pada akhirnya malah terpuruk lebih dalam daripada bila ia tetap berjuang, meski mungkin juga tak pernah menjadi kaya. Aku salut pada tokoh Goujet, seorang pekerja yang bangga pada pekerjaannya dan sama sekali tak menyentuh minuman keras. Sayang sekali, Gervaise yang tinggi hati harus menampik tawaran pria itu untuk hidup bersamanya.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%;">Tak banyak yang dapat aku ungkapkan tentang buku ini, selain bahwa buku ini benar-benar membuatku tersentak…</span><i style="font-size: 100%; ">shock</i><span style="font-size: 100%;"> mungkin lebih tepat. Bukan hanya kemiskinan yang ekstrem dan kelaparan itu sendiri yang mengusik nuraniku, namun juga pengabaian mereka yang sebenarnya sama-sama miskin. Aku tak habis pikir, mengapa mereka harus membenci Gervaise? Apakah karena Gervaise pernah mendaki ke tingkat yang lebih tinggi dari mereka? Ah…tapi toh sekarang ia terlontar jatuh karena kesombongannya itu kan? Bukankah ia telah membayarnya dengan menjadi lebih miskin dari mereka semua? Lalu mengapa mereka semua—alih-alih menghibur dan mendampingi—seolah hanya menonton dari jauh bagaimana Gervaise ‘rotten to death’?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Menurutku Zola bukan saja memaksa kita memahami tentang kemiskinan dan kesombongan, namun juga menyadarkan kita akan sikap kita sendiri terhadapnya. Aku bangga terhadap Gervaise, yang meski sudah nyaris mati kelaparan, namun masih menyisakan keprihatinan bagi seorang anak korban penyiksaan ayahnya, bahkan berusaha membelanya. Ya…Gervaise memang memiliki kelemahan dan melakukan kesalahan, namun ia juga telah menebusnya dengan penderitaan dan cintanya pada sahabat-sahabatnya.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Kalau anda mengharapkan cerita yang menghibur, jangan membaca buku ini. Karena Zola menuliskan kisah ini senyata-nyatanya. Bahkan gaya bahasanya meminjam gaya bahasa slank yang digunakan para pekerja. Kemiskinan digambarkan olehnya dengan begitu gamblang, tanpa pemanis, tanpa hiasan. Memang itulah ciri khas tulisan Zola yang naturalis. Sudah dua kali aku membaca karya Zola, dan dua kali pula aku tersentak. Karya Zola memang akan selalu mengesan, tapi bukan dengan cara yang biasa. Seperti yang dikatakan Zola sendiri tentang buku ini dalam prakata:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><blockquote style="text-align: justify; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">“<i>I wanted to depict the inexorable downfall of a working-class family in the poisonous atmosphere of our industrial suburbs. Intoxication and idleness lead to a weakening of family ties, to the filth of promiscuity, to the progressive neglect of decent feelings and ultimately to degradation and death. It is simply morality in action.</i>”</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Lima bintang untuk L’Assommoir!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span><span style="font-size: 100%;">*Review ini kubuat bertepatan dengan—dan sebagai hadiah—</span></span><b style="font-size: 100%; ">ulang tahun Émile Zola yang ke 172 (2 April 1840 – 2 April 2012)</b><span style="font-size: 100%;">. Happy birthday Mr. Zola! And thank you for your unique and remarkable writing.*</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify; "><span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span>Judul: L’Assommoir</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span>Penulis: Émile Zola</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span>Penerbit: Oxford University Press</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span>Terbit: 2009</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span>Tebal: 440 hl</span><span>m</span></span></div>Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-49219869813161698102012-03-28T18:41:00.003-07:002012-03-29T23:28:26.903-07:00Coupeau: A Character Study from L'Assommoir<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 100%; text-align: left; "><span>Coupeau adalah pria dari kelas pekerja di buku L'Assommoir karya Émile Zola. Sebagai tukang atap (roofer), ia termasuk pekerja yang giat. Coupeau mencintai apa yang dikerjakannya, dan ia adalah tukang atap yang handal. Ia pria sederhana, baik dan sopan. Meski kehidupan para pekerja di Paris biasa diwarnai minuman keras dan w</span></span><span style="font-size: 100%; ">anita, tak begitu halnya dengan Coupeau.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span>Ia jatuh cinta pada Gervaise (tokoh utama wanita), selalu bersikap melindungi dan tak pernah memaksa Gervaise melakukan hal yang tak disukainya. Dengan sabar Coupeau melakukan pendekatan, hingga akhirnya Gervaise setuju untuk menikah dengannya. Pernikahan mereka bahagia, tinggal di rumah sederhana, dengan mengandalkan penghasilan Coupeau, dan Gervaise sebagai tukang cuci. Mereka mampu menabung hingga Gervaise dapat membuka rumah cuci (laundress) sendiri dan menempati rumah yang lebih layak.</span></span></div><span><br /><br /></span><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JqwRk3fIVGI/T3O-06_NnwI/AAAAAAAAF0g/9OgiU6FB4QY/s320/coupeau.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5725129367714897666" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 140px; " /><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left; "><i><span>Coupeau dalam film, pria baik hati yang mencintai Gervaise</span></i></span></div><span><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span>Hingga suatu hari Coupeau tergelincir dan jatuh dari atap, dan kehidupan mereka takkan pernah sama lagi! Terbaring di tempat tidur dan tak bisa bekerja, Coupeau tak pernah mampu menerima nasib malangnya, dan mulai "terjatuh" ke dalam jerat minuman keras. Akhirnya racun itu mengubah Coupeau menjadi pribadi yang berbeda. Egois, tak bertanggung jawab, suka memukul, bahkan kesopanannya digantikan sumpah serapah dalam bahasanya yang kasar.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span>Sosok Coupeau menggambarkan banyak orang yang menyerah kalah pada kemiskinan dan penderitaan. Mereka adalah sosok-sosok yang kalah dalam pertempuran hidup. Ditambah lagi peran orang-orang di sekitar mereka yang sangat merusak, begitu ingin menarik orang lain ke dalam lembah ke mana mereka telah jatuh duluan. Di akhir novel ini akan digambarkan pula akibat mengerikan minuman keras yang telah meracuni tubuh Coupeau dan tanpa ampun merenggut hidupnya.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span>Benar-benar potret kehidupan manusia yang dengan sangat gamblang dan intense telah digambarkan oleh Émile Zola.</span></span></div></div>Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-31832325717038244902012-03-25T18:57:00.001-07:002012-03-25T18:59:45.566-07:00The Laundress on L’Assommoir<div style="text-align: justify; "><span><span style="text-align: left; "><span style="font-size: 100%; " >Zola’s writing always put everyday life strongly in detail. The most interesting setting in L’Assommoir is not the dram shop (l'assommoir) itself, but the laundress of <a href="http://emile-zola-blog.blogspot.com/2012/03/gervaise-character-study-from.html">Gervaise</a> (the female protagonist in this book).</span></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><span style="font-size: 100%;" ><blockquote style="text-align: justify;">"<i>From far away, in the centre of the black row of the other shop-fronts, her shop seems to her full of light, so cheerful and new, with its pale blue sign on which the words "High Quality Laundering" were painting in big yellow letters. In the window which was closed at the back with little muslin curtains and papered in blue to show off the whiteness of the linen, there were mens' shirts displayed and womens' bonnet hung by their ribbons from brass wires. She thought her shop was pretty, the color of the sky. When you went inside there was still more blue, the paper was a copy of a Pompadour chintz, showing a trellis entwined with morning-glories; the workbench was a huge table with a thick cover; it took up two thirds of the space and was draped in a piece of cre</i><i style="font-size: 100%; ">tonne printed with big bluish leaves, that hid the trestles. Gervaise would sit down on a stool, panting slightly with pleasure, delighted by how beautifully clean it was and gazing fondly at all her new equipment. But invariably her eyes went first to the cast-iron stove, where ten irons could heat at the same time, arranged round the grate on sloping stands.</i><span style="font-size: 100%; ">"</span></blockquote></span></div><blockquote><div><blockquote style="font-size: 16px; "></blockquote></div></blockquote><div><blockquote style="font-size: 16px; "><br /></blockquote><blockquote style="font-size: 16px; "><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6zmak0HtZV8/T28KDlwOcbI/AAAAAAAAFyM/A7vkCFa4MOw/s320/laundress1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5723804708201460146" style="font-size: medium; display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 256px; height: 320px; " /></blockquote><div><span ><br /></span></div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-33t5EqDDdUY/T28JqCc_wbI/AAAAAAAAFyA/cZC8BAWbBjQ/s320/laundress2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5723804269228835250" /><span style="font-size: 100%;" ><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span >From that scene I can see that Gervaise is very proud of her new laundress. She set it up neatly and cleanly, which will give a good impression to the neighborhood (her future customers). I think Gervaise is a woman with a business touch, she knows how to attract customers. Laundry equals to cleaning, so a clean shop reflects clean work on laundry. Look at how Gervaise uses white and blue color for the laundress which reflect cleanliness and freshness.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span >Laundress is a common business in 19th centuries--the setting of this book, which Émile Zola describes very detailed here. It's like I myself sit down together with Gervaise, watching her doing her works, and felt the heat from the stove when they were ironing. I think these are Zola's strength in his writing. The laundress is of course showing Gervaise's up and down. She achieved success with the laundress, and she fell down with it too. We could certainly not change this setting, because the laundress is actually Gervaise's life, as well the heart of this story.</span></span></div></div><div style="font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span><br /></span></span></div>Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-81589243276187631812012-03-21T22:45:00.005-07:002012-03-21T23:09:24.171-07:00Gervaise: A Character Study From L'Assommoir<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 100%; text-align: left; "><span >Gervaise adalah seorang wanita biasa dari kalangan kaum pekerja yang hidup di Paris abad 19. Secara fisik wajahnya cantik dan tubuhnya cukup menawan, sehingga disukai kaum pria. Kisah dibuka ketika Gervaise sedang hidup bersama kekasihnya: Lantier. Ternyata setelah memiliki 2 anak, Lantier yang berjanji akan memberikan kehidupan yang lebih baik, malah tenggelam dalam minuman keras dan berselingkuh, lalu meninggalkan Gervaise dalam kemiskinan begitu saja. Gervaise adalah wanita muda yang giat bekerja dan memiliki moral yang baik bila dibandingkan kaum wanita kelas pekerja lainnya. Ia lalu didekati oleh pria bernama Coupaue yang akhirnya menikahinya.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 100%; "><span >Meski berasal dari kelas pekerja, Gervaise memiliki visi untuk berbisnis sendiri membuka rumah laundry atau yang biasa disebut laundress. Sayangnya penghasilannya sebagai pencuci baju di sebuah laundress dan penghasilan suaminya sebagai tukang atap tak cukup untuk mewujudkan impian itu. Untungnya ada pria tetangga mereka yang bernama Goujet yang bersedia meminjami Gervaise uang. Maka laundress itu pun dibuka, dan dikelola Gervaise dengan baik sehingga sukses. Sayangnya Coupeau menderita kecelakaan dan karena kecewa tak dapat bekerja, ia pun jatuh ke dalam jerat minuman keras. Lantier pun akhirnya tinggal bersama keluarga mereka. Maka keuangan laundress itu pun mulai terkuras.</span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Mz8IUz0qcp8/T2rBk3Pyl1I/AAAAAAAAFww/huWtT3jVHwg/s320/gervaise1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5722599115577268050" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 260px; height: 194px; " /></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left; "><span ><i>Wajah Gervaise yang manis</i></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 100%; text-align: left; "><span ><br /></span></span></div><div><span ><br /></span><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ncY8rk_KOVk/T2rBEIqDx4I/AAAAAAAAFwk/9j3iSPqaQZU/s320/gervaise2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5722598553315166082" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 315px; height: 160px; " /><div></div><span ><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span >Gervaise sedang bekerja di laundress-nya dalam film</span></i></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Gervaise adalah potret sesungguhnya kaum pekerja. Meski rajin bekerja, namun sangat sulit untuk dapat menabung uang untuk meningkatkan taraf hidupnya. Kelemahan Gervaise adalah karena ia terlalu baik pada semua orang. Tanpa melihat kemampuannya, ia menerima Lantier dan ibu mertuanya untuk tinggal bersama mereka. Padahal sebagian penghasilan laundress masih harus dipotong untuk membayar hutang pada Goujet. Belum lagi, begitu Gervaise mampu mendirikan bisnis milik sendiri, ia menjadi angkuh dan suka memamerkan kekayaannya. Ketika menyelenggarakan pesta makan malam misalnya, alih-alih memilih hidangan sederhana, ia memilih hidangan dan anggur mewah, meski untuk itu ia harus berhutang dulu.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: 100%;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Rasanya aku sudah sering melihat kehidupan orang-orang macam Gervaise ini, yang entah karena kurang bijaksana, entah karena terlalu lama terpuruk dalam kemiskinan dan lelah bekerja keras, maka begitu mereka sedikit lebih baik, mereka tak dapat mengelola keuangan, sehingga akhirnya mereka pun terpuruk lebih dalam dan tak kunjung dapat mengentaskan diri serta keluarganya ke taraf hidup yang lebih baik.</span></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span style="font-size: 100%;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 100%; ">Sekali lagi, Gervaise hanyalah wanita biasa dan hanya salah satu dari kaum pekerja lainnya…</span></div></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><br /></div></div>Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-38552689156795228002012-03-11T19:09:00.002-07:002012-03-21T23:12:47.922-07:00Mini Biografi Émile Zola<blockquote><i><span style="color: purple;"><b>The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work. </b></span></i><span style="font-size: 100%; ">~ Émile Zola </span></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://surgabukuku.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/zola.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-2131" height="318" src="https://surgabukuku.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/zola.jpg" title="zola" width="230" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Émile François Zola</b></span> lahir di Paris pada tanggal 2 April 1840, dari pasangan François Zola (nama aslinya Francesco Zolla), seorang insinyur Italia, dan istrinya Émilie Aurélie Aubert. Ketiga Zola pindah ke Aix-en-Provence ketika Émile berusia tiga tahun, lalu kembali ke Paris pada tahun 1858, 11 tahun setelah kematian sang ayah. Zola sejak kecil bersahabat dengan seniman Paul Cézanne.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pernah bekerja dalam sebuah perusahaan pelayaran dan penerbit Hachette, Zola menghabiskan tahun-tahun pertama dalam karirnya dengan menulis review sastra dan seni untuk surat kabar, dan kemudian sebagai jurnalis politik. Novel utamanya yang pertama adalah <i>Thérèse Raquin</i> (1867), dan setelah itu Zola mulai menulis seri <i>Les Rougon-Macquart</i> ,yang mengisahkan tentang dua keluarga, keluarga Rougon dan keluarga Macquart, sepanjang lima generasi dalam setting <i>The Second Empire</i> di Prancis, di bawah pemerintahan Napoleon III. Selain itu Zola juga menulis <i>The Masterpiece</i> (1886), <i>l'Assommoir</i> (1877), <i>Germinal</i> (1885), kemudian “kisah tiga kota”, <i>Lourdes</i> (1894), <i>Rome</i> (1896), dan <i>Paris</i> (1897).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?170038" target="_blank"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-2137" height="181" src="https://surgabukuku.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/509a-item-page.jpg" title="509a-item-page" width="300" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?170038" target="_blank">Gambar dari http://www.shapell.org/manuscript.aspx?170038</a></div><div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://surgabukuku.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/jaccuse.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2128" height="265" src="https://surgabukuku.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/jaccuse.jpeg" title="j'accuse" width="326" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Kamis pagi, 13 Januari 1898, Prancis dihebohkan dengan halaman pertama surat kabar <i>L’Aurore</i>. Halaman pertama harian itu memuat tulisan Zola dengan <i>headline</i>: <i><b>“J’Accuse...!”</b></i> (dalam bahasa Inggris: <i>"I accuse...! Letter to the President of the Republic"</i>). Surat terbuka yang ditujukan kepada Presiden Félix Faure ini mengungkapkan tentang Kapten Alfred Dreyfus, seorang opsir Yahudi dalam tentara Prancis. Dreyfus dituduh telah membocorkan rahasia militer Prancis ke pihak Jerman. Ia kemudian dinyatakan bersalah dan dipenjarakan seumur hidup di Devil's Island, French Guiana. Belakangan, Letkol Georges Picquart menemukan bukti bahwa seorang opsir lain, Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, adalah orang yang bertanggung jawab atas bocornya rahasia militer tersebut dan bukannya Dreyfus. Anti-semitisme yang mengakar kuat pada saat itu mencegah Esterhazy diadili, sehingga nasib Dreyfus pun tidak mengalami perubahan. Zola mengambil risiko yang sangat besar dalam karir dan kehidupannya saat <i>J’Accuse</i> muncul . Kasus yang kemudian dikenal sebagai <i>The Dreyfus Affair</i> ini memecah Prancis menjadi dua kubu, kubu ketentaraan dan gereja yang reaksioner, dan kubu masyarakat yang cenderung lebih liberal. Kutipan Zola yang terkenal terkait <i>The Dreyfus Affair</i> adalah,</div><blockquote><span style="color: purple;"><b><i>"The truth is on the march, and nothing shall stop it."</i></b></span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="color: purple;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://surgabukuku.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/emilezolamanet.jpeg"><img alt="" class=" wp-image-2134 " height="507" src="https://surgabukuku.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/emilezolamanet.jpeg" title="emilezolamanet" width="392" /> </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://surgabukuku.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/emilezolamanet.jpeg">"Portrait of Emile Zola" (1868) by Édouard Manet</a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Zola meninggal dunia pada umur 62 tahun, pada tanggal 29 September 1902 karena keracunan gas karbon monoksida, akibat cerobong asap yang ditutup. Banyak yang mencurigai bahwa musuh-musuh Zola terlibat dalam kematiannya ini, namun asumsi ini menguap begitu saja karena tidak ada bukti. Zola awalnya dikubur di Cimetière de Montmartre di Paris, namun 6 tahun kemudian jasadnya dipindahkan ke Panthéon, di sebuah kapel bawah tanah di mana jasad Victor Hugo dan Alexandre Dumas juga bersemayam.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Émile Zola yang karya sastranya banyak diinspirasi oleh Balzac (1799-1850), diakui sebagai bapak dari sastra naturalis, dan sastrawan yang tak kalah sinarnya dengan sastrawan-sastrawan Prancis lain, semisal Victor Hugo. Ciri khas karya-karya literatur Zola adalah bahasa yang jelas, sederhana, tepat, deskripsi kenyataan seakurat mungkin. Memulai karirnya sebagai jurnalis, saran Zola bagi penulis-penulis muda adalah dengan memulai karir dari jurnalisme untuk mencapai gaya menulis yang ringkas dan efektif.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><i>Dari berbagai sumber</i><i><b> </b></i><br /><br /><i><b>Links:</b></i><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emile_zola" target="_blank">Émile Zola on Wikipedia</a><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_affair" target="_blank">The Dreyfus Affair on Wikipedia</a><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%27accuse" target="_blank"><i>"J'Accuse...!"</i> (letter) on Wikipedia</a><br /><a href="http://www.chameleon-translations.com/sample-Zola.shtml" target="_blank">English translation of <i>"J'Accuse...!"</i></a><br /><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029146/" target="_blank">Biographical film <i>"The Life of Émile Zola"</i> on IMDb</a><br /><br />Posting asli dari <a href="http://surgabukuku.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/classic-author-of-march-2012-emile-zola/"><i>Surgabukuku</i></a>Melisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15787124827978569916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598929107407105739.post-2387403330809201982012-03-09T20:25:00.003-08:002012-03-09T20:32:20.380-08:00Thérèse Raquin<div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yXAEA8oI9LU/Tq1PUJ6gNQI/AAAAAAAAEvI/gx3BLnww5Rs/s1600/therese-raquin.jpg" style="font-size: 100%; font-family: Georgia, serif; " onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 309px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yXAEA8oI9LU/Tq1PUJ6gNQI/AAAAAAAAEvI/gx3BLnww5Rs/s320/therese-raquin.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669274713606599938" border="0" /></a></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; "><span ><b><i>Synopsis</i></b>:</span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; "><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span ><span style="color: rgb(24, 24, 24); font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">One of Zola's most famous realistic novels, Therese Raquin is a clinically observed, sinister tale of adultery and murder among the lower classes in nineteenth-century Parisian society. Zola's shocking tale dispassionately dissects the motivations of his characters--mere "human beasts", who kill in order to satisfy their lust--and stands as a key manifesto of the French Naturalist movement, of which the author was the founding father.</span> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><span style="color: rgb(24, 24, 24); font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); " ><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><span style="color: rgb(24, 24, 24); font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); " ><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify; font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><span style="color: rgb(24, 24, 24); font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); " ><b><i>My Review</i></b>:</span></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; "><span ><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; "><span ><span>Kalau ada satu hal yang paling rumit di dunia dan tak pernah bisa dipahami, pasti itu adalah manusia. Pepatah mengatakan, dalamnya laut dapat diduga, dalamnya hati siapa tahu. Mungkin karena itulah, psikologi adalah salah satu hal yang selalu menarik minatku, meski aku tak pernah mempelajarinya secara serius di bangku kuliah. Yang paling menakjubkan bagiku adalah bagaimana manusia memutuskan untuk berbuat jahat, yang jelas-jelas melawan kodratnya; dan bagaimana ia melawan hati nuraninya setelah melakukannya. Émile Zola benar-benar memukauku dengan caranya membuat sebuah pergulatan batin menjadi gamblang, lewat karyanya: Therese Raquin.</span><br /><br /><span>Therese Raquin bukanlah putri kandung Mme Raquin. Ia adalah keponakan yang diangkat menjadi anak oleh Mme Raquin, yang hidup menjanda di sebuah kota kecil di Prancis pada abad 19, bersama dengan putra semata wayangnya: Camille. Dari lahir Camille adalah bocah lembek yang sakit-sakitan. Hal itu diperparah oleh cara sang ibu membesarkannya, yaitu dalam pemanjaan sekaligus pemujaan. Camille pun terbiasa dicekoki oleh obat dan ramuan, dan dikurung di rumah yang gelap dan suram.</span><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><span ><div style="text-align: justify;">Mau tak mau, Therese harus menerima perlakuan yang sama dari ibu angkatnya, meski ia sebenarnya adalah gadis yang sehat walafiat. Dan lihatlah apa yang terjadi…</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span ><span style="font-style: italic;">Kehidupan orang sakit yang dipaksakan terhadap dirinya membuatnya menjadi orang yang tertutup. Ia menjadi terbiasa berbicara dengan suara lirih, berjalan tanpa suara, duduk diam dan tak bergerak-gerak di kursi, memandang kosong dengan mata membelalak lebar.</span> ~hlm. 26.</span></blockquote><div style="font-size: 16px; text-align: justify; "></div><span ><div style="text-align: justify;">Therese akhirnya tumbuh sebagai gadis pemurung, acuh, namun di dalam dirinya ada semacam api yang menggelegak, bak gunung berapi yang sedang menggodok magmanya sebelum pada suatu saat yang tepat menyemburkannya dalam sebuah ledakan besar.</div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px; text-align: justify; "></div><span ><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Keegoisan Mme Raquin membuatnya mengambil keputusan untuk menikahkan Therese dan Camille. Sesudah itu, keluarga yang aneh inipun pindah ke Paris, dan tinggal di rumah sekaligus toko alat jahitan yang suram di Passage (Selasar) du Pont Neuf. Camille yang suka mengajak teman-temannya singgah, suatu hari memboyong teman lamanya: Laurent. Saat melihat Laurent, Therese bagaikan tersihir. Tak seperti suaminya yang lembek dan berbau seperti anak kecil sakit-sakitan yang mebuat Therese jijik, Laurent terlihat benar-benar seperti seorang pria. Dalam diri Therese pelan-pelan tumb</span>uh hasrat yang kuat yang, kupikir, merupakan pelampiasan atas keterkungkungan hidup wanita itu selama ini.</div></span></div><div><div style="font-size: 16px; text-align: justify; "></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><span ><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Di sisi lain, Laurent adalah jenis pria paling menyebalkan di dunia. Pria yang hanya mau bermalas-malasan dan mendewakan kenikmatan lewat makanan dan seks. Dan pria seperti ini lah yang melangkahkan kaki ke rumah keluarga Raquin dan menemukan wanita yang bisa memenuhi hasratnya: Therese. Tak butuh waktu lama, segera terjadilah perselingkuhan panas penuh gairah antara kedua manusia ini. Laurent dan Therese menemukan kenikmatan dalam perselingkuhan mereka, dan mulai timbul keinginan untuk </span>melakukannya dengan bebas. Satu-satunya penghalang bagi keduanya untuk bersatu, adalah Camille. Tanpa perlu terucap, dosa perzinahan yang mereka lakukan mulai menggiring mereka ke dosa berikutnya.</div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><span ><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Kisah di atas hanya memakan sepertiga dari keseluruhan buku ini. Dua pertiga sisanya dipenuhi oleh Zola dengan kajian psikologis Therese dan Laurent setelah melakukan kejahatan mereka. Dan di bagian-bagian inilah terletak kekuatan buku ini. Zola tak hendak hanya bertutur, ia sedang melakukan semacam analisa ilmiah. Bak seorang ilmuwan yang ingin mengamati reaksi tertentu yang timbul bila ia mencampurkan dua substansi berbeda, begitulah Zola menyajikan perubahan watak yang akan terjadi apabila dua insan manusia yang berbeda watak namun sama-sama labil dipertemu</span>kan oleh cinta. Dan ketika hasrat mereka tak terkekang, hasrat itu membawa mereka pada tindakan yang tak bermoral serta pengecut. Namun yang paling menarik, bagaimana reaksi watak mereka setelah tindak kejahatan yang sama-sama mereka lakukan itu.</div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: italic;" >Tubuh mereka menggeletarkan getaran-getaran yang sama, dan jantung meraka, yang membentuk semacam persatuan yang merana, berdebar-debar kencang gara-gara perasaan ngeri yang sama. Semenjak saat itu, mereka hanya mempunyai satu tubuh d</span></blockquote><div style="font-size: 16px; text-align: justify; "></div><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span ><span style="font-style: italic;">an satu jiwa untuk merasakan kenikmatan dan penderitaan. Kesamaan itu, perasaan menyatu itu bersifat kejiwaan dan merupakan fakta psikologis yang sering terjadi di antara orang-orang yang terperangkap bersama-sama gara-gara suatu ketegangan mental yang luar biasa</span>. ~hlm. 166.</span></blockquote><span ><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Seringkali manusia menggembar-gemborkan tentang kebebasan. Padahal tak ada kebebasan mutlak dalam kehidupan kita. Setiap tindakan kita membawa kita pada konsekuensi yang lain. Therese dan Laurent juga mendambakan kebebasan yang harusnya tak mereka miliki. Akiba</span>tnya, alih-alih merasa bebas, mereka justru menjadi budak dari konsekuensi tindakan mereka sendiri. Mengerikan bagaimana hati nurani manusia menghukum diri mereka sendiri dengan caranya sendiri pula. Pergulatan batin Therese dan Laurent begitu intens dan digambarkan dengan jelas dan detil oleh Zola hingga pembaca seolah turut mengalami mimpi-mimpi buruk mereka yang menyeret mereka ke ambang kegilaan.</div></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><span ><div style="text-align: justify;">Saat terbit, Therese Raquin mendapatkan kritikan bertubi-tubi dari para kritikus maupun sesama penulis, yang menganggap Therese Raquin mengumbar kejorokan dan kevulgaran. Dalam edisi kedua yang diterbitkan tahun 1868, Zola pun menulis pendahuluan untuk menjelaskan latar belakang di balik kisah Therese Raquin.</div></span><div style="font-size: 16px; text-align: justify; "></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span></div><span ><div style="text-align: justify;">Seperti telah kuungkapkan di paragraf awal, aku menyukai telaah psikologis dalam kisah fiksi. Dua penulis terfavoritku: Agatha Christie dan John Grisham pernah menghasilkan buku-buku yang mengupas psikologi manusia saat menghadapi sesuatu. Christie dalam banyak novelnya, namun Tirai (Curtain) yang menjadi favoritku. Sedang Grisham lewat The Chamber (Kamar Gas). Namun keduanya belum apa-apa bila dibandingkan Therese Raquin.</div></span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span ><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px; text-align: justify; "></div><span ><div style="text-align: justify;">Jujur, buku ini tergolong berat dan menguras emosi. Bukan jenis buku yang akan memberi hiburan, tapi jelas buku ini juga merupakan jenis buku yang takkan pernah anda lupakan. "Gema"nya akan terus memenuhi pikiran anda selama beberapa waktu lamanya setelah anda menutup buku ini. Bravo Émile Zola! Meski dulu banyak orang mencelamu, tapi aku yakin tak banyak orang lain yang mampu menghasilkan karya seperti ini. Tiga bintang untuk Therese Raquin!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><i><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Original cover</i>:</div></i></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; "><span ><br /></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; "><div><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O3Y7g-7RwFs/T1rYyCpSepI/AAAAAAAAFnU/9hzBSO9ifxw/s320/cover-therese-raquin.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5718121031115373202" style="text-align: justify;color: rgb(24, 24, 24); font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; cursor: pointer; width: 207px; height: 320px; " /></div><div><span ><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left; font-size: medium; "></div><span style="text-align: left; font-size: medium; " ></span></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: justify; "><span ><br /></span></div>Fanda Classiclithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07642429343958941266noreply@blogger.com0