'Respectable people...What bastards!' Unjustly deported to Devil's Island following Louis-Napoleon's coup-d'etat in December 1851, Florent Quenu escapes and returns to Paris. He finds the city changed beyond recognition. The old Marche des Innocents has been knocked down as part of Haussmann's grand programme of urban reconstruction to make way for Les Halles, the spectacular new food markets. Disgusted by a bourgeois society whose devotion to food is inseparable from its devotion to the Government, Florent attempts an insurrection. Les Halles, apocalyptic and destructive, play an active role in Zola's picture of a world in which food and the injustice of society are inextricably linked. The Belly of Paris (Le Ventre de Paris) is the third volume in Zola's famous cycle of twenty novels, Les Rougon-Macquart. It introduces the painter Claude Lantier and in its satirical representation of the bourgeoisie and capitalism complements Zola's other great novels of social conflict and urban poverty.
The Belly of Paris (Oxford World's Classics)
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By KalteStern
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback
What came as the greatest shock to me, when first reading anything by Zola was how very modern, accessible and readable the books actually are - if the stately narrative pace and long digressions into political theorizing or heavy handed caricature of Dickens or Tolstoy have put you off 'classic' 19th Century literature , take heart - these are a cracking read.
This novel is one of the less well known ones, partly I suspect because the actual plot is the least of it, compared to, say, Nana or Therese Raquin, and thus not amenable to being filmed as a 100 minute drama by Hollywood or even the BBC.
No, the apppeal of this one is the extraordinarily detailed exposition of day to day life for working people in an around Les Halles in Paris - what they ate, what they wore, how they talked, what they thought - it quickly becomes an immersive experience of extraordinary power. If you like that sort of thing
This novel is one of the less well known ones, partly I suspect because the actual plot is the least of it, compared to, say, Nana or Therese Raquin, and thus not amenable to being filmed as a 100 minute drama by Hollywood or even the BBC.
No, the apppeal of this one is the extraordinarily detailed exposition of day to day life for working people in an around Les Halles in Paris - what they ate, what they wore, how they talked, what they thought - it quickly becomes an immersive experience of extraordinary power. If you like that sort of thing
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By JVRobson
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
One of the most vividly atmospheric books I've ever read. From the opening lines - where the fugitive Florent returns to Paris hidden in a vegetable cart after escaping from Devil's island - the reader is plunged into the world of Les Halles, the city's covered food markets.
Zola's descriptions of the meat, fish, fruits and vegetables on display have the symphonic richness of a prose poem, symbolically equating their decorative abundance (and fly-specked corruption) with the excesses of the French Second Empire against which Florent has rebelled.
Unfortunately, his fascination with the markets and the gossipy, upwardly mobile petit bourgeoise traders who inhabit them, does detract from a not-too compelling central story. Florent is a weak dreamer, whose attempts to live under a new identity with his butcher brother and organise a new insurrection against the government always seem doomed to failure.
He's constantly manipulated by his upwardly-mobile sister-in-law Lisa, who despises his politics and is keen to get rid of him, and her great rival La Belle Normande, a fish trader who sets her cap at Florent to gain revenge on her snobbish former schoolfriend. They're both far more compelling characters and in the end Florent's story is swallowed up in the recreation of a grubby, acquisitive world that Zola clearly finds appalling and fascinating at the same time.
The novel is an early entry in the Rougon-Macquart cycle and there's a definite sense of Zola introducing characters who will be more significant later, and experimenting with the form his "naturelle et sociale" history of the Second Empire will take.
All of this makes it less successful and rewarding than some of his works(Therese Raquin has a taut, utterly compelling plot yet is still steeped in atmosphere) but worth it for the experience of a master stylist evoking a lost world (the markets were demolished in the 1960s) and creating an Orwellian atmosphere where the authorities keep the masses enslaved by encouraging them to acquire a bit of money and social standing - and betray even family members to keep it...
It's an excellent edition, too - solid introduction, illuminating background notes, very extensive bibliography and a translation that captures Zola's earthy, worldly tone - so different to what Dickens was producing at roughly the same time but sharing all his reforming zeal and rich humanity.
Zola's descriptions of the meat, fish, fruits and vegetables on display have the symphonic richness of a prose poem, symbolically equating their decorative abundance (and fly-specked corruption) with the excesses of the French Second Empire against which Florent has rebelled.
Unfortunately, his fascination with the markets and the gossipy, upwardly mobile petit bourgeoise traders who inhabit them, does detract from a not-too compelling central story. Florent is a weak dreamer, whose attempts to live under a new identity with his butcher brother and organise a new insurrection against the government always seem doomed to failure.
He's constantly manipulated by his upwardly-mobile sister-in-law Lisa, who despises his politics and is keen to get rid of him, and her great rival La Belle Normande, a fish trader who sets her cap at Florent to gain revenge on her snobbish former schoolfriend. They're both far more compelling characters and in the end Florent's story is swallowed up in the recreation of a grubby, acquisitive world that Zola clearly finds appalling and fascinating at the same time.
The novel is an early entry in the Rougon-Macquart cycle and there's a definite sense of Zola introducing characters who will be more significant later, and experimenting with the form his "naturelle et sociale" history of the Second Empire will take.
All of this makes it less successful and rewarding than some of his works(Therese Raquin has a taut, utterly compelling plot yet is still steeped in atmosphere) but worth it for the experience of a master stylist evoking a lost world (the markets were demolished in the 1960s) and creating an Orwellian atmosphere where the authorities keep the masses enslaved by encouraging them to acquire a bit of money and social standing - and betray even family members to keep it...
It's an excellent edition, too - solid introduction, illuminating background notes, very extensive bibliography and a translation that captures Zola's earthy, worldly tone - so different to what Dickens was producing at roughly the same time but sharing all his reforming zeal and rich humanity.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By light
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I enjoyed reading this book but felt it was just not in the same class as some of Zola's other books such as L'Assomoir and Germinal. If you are new to Zola I think you would be best to start with one of his "classics". This story is about the newly built Les Halles market in Paris and follows the fortunes of Florent Quennu a thin pale young man who was imprisoned on Devil's Island after inadvertantly getting caught up in a violent riot. He has managed to escape and has made his way back home where he finds his brother running a thriving butcher's shop and married to a plump, pretty woman who instantly dislikes Florent. The situation isn't helped by the fact that their business has been funded by an inheritance that should have gone to Florent or that Florent begins to teach the son of his sister - in -laws arch enemy. Florent becomes the Fish inspector at the market, a job he detests and also gets caught up once again in revolutionary activity which leads to tragedy.
Like all Zola's there are also a host of sub characters and their stories featured. Where this book is more unusual is in the long descriptions given about the market and its smells and sounds which although well written became a little tedious. I also found the characters were not as well developed as in othe Zola's I have read and so I felt less empathy for and insight into their situation. However, I still enjoyed reading this, it just was not his very best.
Like all Zola's there are also a host of sub characters and their stories featured. Where this book is more unusual is in the long descriptions given about the market and its smells and sounds which although well written became a little tedious. I also found the characters were not as well developed as in othe Zola's I have read and so I felt less empathy for and insight into their situation. However, I still enjoyed reading this, it just was not his very best.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Easy Zola
Accessible Zola. This time the Paris of Zola and the London of Dickens track. Les Halles and Covent Garden. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Geoff KERSHAW
2.0 out of 5 stars
Far too many tomatoes,apples,fish heads,and shell fish for me!
Yes,I know the novel was set in Les Halles market,but the constant descriptions of every kind of foodstuff imaginable was way,way over the top. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Ra Baxter
4.0 out of 5 stars
Zola and his Rougon-Macquart Novels
I have now read several of Zola's novels, this being the latest. There appear to be two types of book, one factually descriptive and the other more personal. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Greco
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Underbelly
I am an unashamed devotee of Zola, and find very little to fault in any of his novels. This is especially true of the more recent translations which are much easier to read than... Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2007 by Big Jim
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