His Excellency Eugne Rougon [Paperback]

'He loved power for power's sake . . . He was without question the greatest of the Rougons.'

His Excellency Eug?ne Rougon(1876) is the sixth novel in Zola's twenty-volume Rougon-Macquart cycle. A political novel set in the corridors of power and in the upper echelons of French Second Empire society, including the Imperial court, it focuses on the fluctuating fortunes of the authoritarian Eug?ne Rougon, the vice-Emperor. But it is more than just a chronicle. It plunges the reader into the essential dynamics of the political: the rivalries, the scheming, the jockeying for position, the ups and downs, the play of interests, the lobbying and gossip, the patronage and string-pulling, the bribery and blackmail, and, especially, the manipulation of language for political purposes. The novel's themes--especially its treatment of political discourse--have remarkable contemporary resonance.His Excellency Eug?ne Rougonis about politics everywhere.

I'm going to celebrate the 21st century with a re-read ofHis Excellency Eug?ne Rougon. -- Swiftly Tilting Planet

Brian Nelsonis Emeritus Professor of French Studies and Translation Studies at Monash University, Melbourne, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He has been editor of theAustralian Journal of French Studiessince 2002. His publications includeThe Cambridge Companion to Zola(CUP, 20017),Zola and the Bourgeoisie(Palgrave Macmillan, 1983), and translations ofEarth,The Fortune of the Rougons,The Belly of Paris,The Kill,Pot Luck, andThe Ladies' Paradisefor Oxford World's Classics. He was awarded the New South Wales Premier's Prize for Translation in 2015. His most recent critical work isThe Cambridge Introduction to French Literature(CUP, 2015).