Human Beast: The Emile Zola Society Edition

by Emile Zola

  4 a vivid splash of colour in the pale afternoon light: The opening description of the station, with its emphasis on modern structures of glass and steel, the effect of hazy sunlight and the vivid red of the signal, calls to mind paintings of the Gare Saint-Lazare made in 1877 by Claude Monet (1840 — 1926). Zola had promoted the work of Impressionist painters and acknowledged that his own descriptive techniques owed much to them.

  5 cylinder taps: An example of the sort of technical detail that Zola had researched and was determined to include in his novel. The cylinder taps, when opened, allowed steam to be passed at high pressure through the cylinders in order to expel water condensation and other chemical deposits which collected in them when the locomotive was stationary. The effect could be quite dramatic!

  6 the clatter of turntables: In the early days of railway construction, turntables (or ‘turnplates’ as they were first called) were situated on the arrival tracks of mainline stations to enable wagons and carriages to be shunted around the station or into adjoining sidings. By the 1870s they had begun to disappear. In his preparatory notes for the description of the station, Zola records the distinctive sound made by the turntables as trains ran over them.

  7 six thousand francs: Zola is determined to give his novel a sense of contemporary realism and he is specific about money throughout. The figures he mentions would have made the Dauvergnes a comfortably placed family, in receipt of two full-time salaries and housing and heating concessions too (see A Note on Money).

  8 Sub-Prefect: Prefects and sub-prefects were responsible for the local administration of a département. They were appointed directly by the Emperor and wielded great authority. One of their most important functions was to control elections and ensure the return of government-nominated candidates (see note 13 below).

  9 and then it was back to the grind!: This conversation between Roubaud and Henri Dauvergne exemplifies the way in which Zola handles spoken exchanges throughout the novel, with a mixture of direct speech, indirect speech and free indirect speech.

  10 Plassans:Zola’s fictional name for Aix-en-Provence, where he had spent most of his childhood and youth (1843 — 58). Plassans is the town in which the Rougon-Macquarts have their roots. Adélaïde Fouque, the ancestress of both branches of the family, is described in La Fortune des Rougon (chapter 2) as being born there in 1768. The town is referred to repeatedly throughout the novel cycle.

  11 President Grandmorin: ‘President’ is a title designating a High Court judge, a title which Grandmorin retains, despite having officially retired, and which marks him out as a man of considerable means and influence.

  12 the Bon Marché: A large department store in Paris, founded in 1852 by Aristide Boucicaut (1810 — 77). The life and intrigues of a Paris department store are portrayed in an earlier novel in the series, Au Bonheur des Dames (translated as The Ladies’ Delight by Robin Buss, Penguin Classics, 2001).

  13 the forthcoming general elections: These were not the sort of open, democratic elections that the present-day reader might be familiar with. Zola refers to elections to the lower house of the Legislative Assembly (L’Assemblée legislative). The Legislative Assembly was charged with converting national policy into law but it was given only limited powers. Laws were formulated by the upper house, which was appointed by the Emperor himself and which met in secret. Members of the lower house, which could ratify or reject but not initiate or amend legislation, were elected by male suffrage. These elections were carefully managed. Certain candidates were nominated by the government and designated as ‘official’ candidates. It was the responsibility of the prefects of the various départements of France (who were again appointed directly by the Emperor) to ensure that these ‘official’ candidates were elected. This was achieved by tight control of election publicity and propaganda, with the result that very few opposition candidates were elected to the Assembly during the whole period of the Second Empire. By 1869 opposition to such a ‘closed’ form of government had gained considerable momentum, and the government was threatened with the possibility of an election deafeat.

  14 local government councillor: The local council (Conseil Général) was responsible for the administration of local regions within a département, in this instance Rouen and the surrounding district. It was an elected body but was answerable directly to the Prefect.

  15 which was twice as much as he was earning as an assistant stationmaster at Le Havre: In other words Roubaud earns about 2,000 francs a year (see A Note on Money).

  16 what if it turned out he was your father?: This is the third time that the possibility of Séverine being Grandmorin’s daughter has been mentioned in this chapter. It appears to be a particular obsession of Roubaud’s and is clearly a sensitive issue with Séverine. Zola leaves the suspicion unconfirmed, but by insisting on it he allows the possibility to take root in the reader’s mind.

  17 the screws properly tightened: The ‘screw’ reduced the slack in the coupling which linked the carriages together, improving the cohesion and stability of the train. Zola had evidently observed the operation carefully.

  18 coupé compartment: An end compartment in a railway carriage with seating on one side only.

  CHAPTER II

  1 La Croix-de-Maufras: A fictional name with a sinister ring to it (mau in French suggests ‘evil’).

  2 as silent and empty as the grave: Zola had made a careful study of the topography of the region between Barentin and Malaunay. This and subsequent descriptions combine precisely recorded features of landscape with a desire to create a sombre setting for the dark happenings which occur here.

  3 Phasie: A child’s diminutive for Euphrasie. The name acts as a reminder of Jacques’s childhood innocence.

  4 a Lantier: Jacques comes as a late addition to the Rougon-Macquart genealogical tree, which Zola had originally devised in 1878. There is no mention of him in the earlier novels describing the fortunes of his parents and his two brothers (La Fortune des Rougon, L‘Assommoir, Germinal and L’Œuvre).

  5 Paris-Orléans company: The company was founded in 1838 and operated trains to southern Brittany and parts of central France.

  6 La Lison: This is the locomotive mentioned in the previous chapter. It is explained later in the novel (chapter V) that locomotives were named after towns served by the railway. Lison is a town in the Cotentin region of Normandy between Caen and Cherbourg.

  7 section box: The ‘block system’ began to be introduced as early as the 1840s. It provided a means of maintaining a safe distance between trains which followed each other on the same track. A line was divided into ‘sections’, and a block telegraph circuit was set up for each section. A system of telegraphic bell codes was used to ensure that trains only passed from one section to another when the line was clear. Zola describes the procedure and the telegraphic equipment in comprehensive detail.

  8 she couldn’t bring herself to repeat it: The death of Louisette is mentioned several times throughout the novel. Exactly what happened is never made clear. It remains an unexplained mystery in the novel’s catalogue of crime (see Introduction).

  9 hardy inner life: Zola uses a horticultural term (‘vivace’ in French) to refer to the communities that are invaded by the mechanized progress of the railways. Horticultural imagery occurs throughout the novel (see below, chapter VI, note I).

  10 he often thought that he must have inherited this family flaw himself:Jacques’s mother, Gervaise Lantier (née Macquart), is abandoned by her husband, Auguste Lantier, soon after the family arrives in Paris. She is eventually driven to drink and dies destitute (L‘Assommoir). Jacques’s elder brother, Claude, becomes a painter, obsessed with radical new theories about art (L’Œuvre). His younger brother, Étienne, becomes a mine worker and leads a miners’ strike (Germinal). The influence of heredity is a recurring preoccupation throughout the cycle of Rougon-Macquart novels (see Introduction).

  11 in the dark recesses of some primeval cave: This idea is derived from Zola’s reading of C
esare Lombroso’s (1835 — 1909) L‘Homme criminel (The Criminal Man, original Italian title L’Uomo delinquente, 1876): ‘The most barbaric crimes have a physiological, atavistic origin, deriving from animal instincts, which thanks to upbringing, social milieu or the fear of punishment may lie dormant, but which will suddenly flare up under the influence of illness, meteorites, or spermatic intoxication caused by a protracted period of sexual abstinence’ (C. Lombroso, L’Homme criminel. Criminel-né. Fou moral. Épileptique. Étude anthropologique et medico-légal, translated by Régnier and Bournet (Paris: Alcan, 1887), p. 665).

  12 his fellow drivers, in the class two and class three grades: These details are based on information which Zola obtained from Pol Lefèvre (see Introduction). Some employees were initially taken on as apprentice fitters or cleaners, for example, and trained as drivers by the railway company itself. Others (like Jacques) had received further education and technical training before joining the Company and could aspire to positions of greater responsibility. Although Jacques is one of the Company’s top drivers and is well paid, it might have seemed odd to his colleagues that he was happy to remain as a driver.

  13 his train wasn’t due to leave for Le Havre until seven twenty: A minor discrepancy. Earlier Zola had given the time as seven twenty-six.

  CHAPTER III

  1 the station buildings were dull and dreary, with cracks everywhere: The first railway line to Le Havre (from Rouen) was opened in 1843. Through trains from Paris to Le Havre began operating in 1847. It would appear that some of the station buildings described here date from the earliest years of Le Havre’s railway history. The station was rebuilt in 1884. Zola visited it in 1889 and spoke to the stationmaster and to an employee of long standing, who were able to give him precise information about the station as it was in 1869. The dilapidated state of the buildings contrasts sharply with the impressive modernization of the Gare Saint-Lazare. Eugène Flachat’s huge train sheds at the Gare Saint-Lazare date from 1851.

  2 the safety officer: Railway safety officers had been appointed as early as the 1840s, when the dangers of railway operation were becoming increasingly apparent. They were responsible for overseeing the safety of the travelling public and of employees. They were appointed, not by the railway company, but by the Ministry of Public Works (Ministère des Travaux Publics). They had a quasi-police title (commissaire) and were given powers of arrest. They wore a uniform. On his visit to Le Havre, Zola made a note of the safety officer’s ‘black cap with four silver braids’.

  3 piquet: A card-game played by two persons with a pack of thirty-two cards, the low cards from the two to the six being excluded.

  4 a bloodstained fingerprint: This is the closest the novel comes to any sort of forensic consideration. Given the novel’s subject matter and Zola’s declared interest in scientific methods, this appears surprising.

  CHAPTER IV

  1 the examining magistrate: The examining magistrate (juge d‘instruction) was (and still is) responsible for a preliminary investigation into a crime. In current Anglo-American procedure, such an investigation would be carried out by the police. In France in the nineteenth century, investigation was passed on to the judiciary at an early stage of a criminal inquiry. The examining magistrate’s investigation was conducted in private. If there was insufficient evidence, the case would be dismissed. If the examining magistrate felt that there was a case to be answered, it would be forwarded for trial by jury in an open court (cour d’assises).

  2 opposition newspapers: From its inception in December 1852, the Second Empire had promoted ‘official’ government newspapers (such as L’Opinion nationale) and exercised rigorous censorship of the opposition press. The latter years of the regime, however, saw a more liberal attitude towards the press and the creation of a number of new opposition newspapers. According to James McMillan, ‘in the run-up to the 1869 elections, some 150 newspapers were founded, 120 of them hostile to the regime. The most vituperative was La Lanterne’ (James McMillan, Napoleon III, Longman, 1991, p. 125). The ‘opposition’ included a range of dissidents from Republicans on the left to Orleanists on the right. Zola himself contributed frequently to the opposition press (see Introduction).

  3 two deputies who held official positions in the Emperor’s personal entourage: In March 1869, the Legislative Assembly challenged the right of two members of the Emperor’s ‘household’ to sit as deputies in the lower chamber. The deputies concerned were Monsieur de Bourgoing, the Emperor’s equerry, and Monsieur de Piennes, the Emperor’s chamberlain. The debate raised important constitutional issues.

  4 the financial administration of the Prefect of the Seine: The Prefect of the Seine was the famous Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann (1809 — 91), who was responsible for the wholesale rebuilding of central Paris between 1853 and 1869. The issue in question was Haussmann’s request for retrospective sanction of a loan from Le Crédit Foncier to the municipality of Paris amounting to about a quarter of the whole French budget. It was clearly felt that such arrangements should be subject to approval by a municipal council. At the time, no such council existed.

  5 the Tuileries Palace: The palace of the Emperor, Napoleon III (1808 — 73).

  6 the Ministry of Justice: In France, the judiciary was (and still is) conceived as an instrument of executive authority rather than an authority separate from government. It was overseen by the Ministry of Justice, whose officers were answerable directly to the Emperor. Monsieur Camy-Lamotte’s position within the ministry is the equivalent of a permanent under-secretary (see Introduction).

  7 bring them face to face: It was standard procedure for the examining magistrate to arrange a confrontation between a suspect and a witness in order to observe the suspect’s reaction.

  8 Petit-Couronne: A town on the river Seine, near Rouen. In the nineteenth century it was a small fishing village.

  9 they managed to get from their carriage to the President’s ... while the train was travelling at full speed: In 1869, railway carriages did not have corridors; each compartment was self-contained. Zola assumes his readers will understand that in order to get from one carriage to another it would have been necessary to get outside the train and walk along the carriage footboard, jumping from one carriage to the next. Corridor trains were not introduced until the late 1880s. It is not surprising that Denizet finds such an operation difficult to believe.

  10 brain fever: I.e. typhoid.

  CHAPTER V

  1 Séverine knew that he would be in at one o’clock: How Séverine knew this is not explained. The audacity of this apparently casual visit to the private address of a high-placed government official would have appeared just as remarkable to readers of Zola’s time as it does to the present-day reader. It serves to indicate the extent of the Roubauds’ anxiety.

  2 their anxiety would be at an end: Zola’s novel has been interpreted as a ‘riposte’ to Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment (see Introduction), but this account of the criminal being driven by his own anxiety to confess his crime has a strong affinity with comments made by the investigator Porfiry in Dostoyevsky’s novel. ‘I make damn sure that every hour and every minute he knows, or at least suspects that I know everything ... and that I’m keeping an eye on him night and day ... and if he’s conscious of the never-ending suspicion and terror in which I’m keeping him ... he’ll go off into a whirl, he’ll come running of his own accord’ (Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment, translated by David McDuff, Penguin Classics, 1991, p. 400).

  3 the police were so busy protecting politicians that they didn’t have time to arrest murderers: ‘The elections of May — June 1869 unleashed pent-up political passions ... In Paris the electoral campaign was accompanied by an upsurge in violence and threats to public order. Attendance at electoral meetings averaged 20,000 nightly, and rioting was commonplace’ (McMillan, Napoleon III, p. 126).

  4 They were walking past the entrance to a little park: The creation of parks and green space was an important part of Haussmann’s
rebuilding of Paris, and one which the Emperor himself took a particular interest in. ‘In 1848 Paris had only 19 hectares of parks; by 1870 the total was 1,800’ (Alistair Horne, Seven Ages of Paris, Macmillan, 2002, p. 270).

  5 the pain de gruau was exquisite, and to finish she treated herself to a plate of beignets soufflés: ‘Pain de gruau’ was a speciality white bread made from finely milled flour of wheat. ‘Beignets soufflés’ might be described as small, light-textured doughnuts. They are served hot with confectioner’s sugar and various flavourings. This menu is an indication that French culinary arts (and the culinary language to match) were well advanced in 1869.

  6 It was a broad-chested, long-limbed, powerful machine: The analogy between steam locomotives and horses recurs throughout the novel. Zola seeks to ‘animate’ descriptions of locomotive technology by reference to something less technical and still perhaps, even in 1890, more familiar to his readers. The horses referred to are nearly always female (‘fillies’ or ‘mares’).

  7 sand boxes: In difficult conditions, sand would be applied to the rails ahead of the driving wheels in order to improve adhesion, especially when a locomotive was moving a heavy train from stationary.

  8 warmly dressed in woollen trousers and smock: The design of early steam locomotives took little account of the comfort or safety of the driving crew. The driver’s footplate was usually protected by nothing more than a front weather-shield; the overhead roof and enclosed cab were a later luxury. Jacques and Pecqueux are thus exposed to the full force of the elements and also to sparks and cinders thrown out of the locomotive’s chimney; hence the need for strong protective clothing, made out of heavy wool (or pilot cloth), and goggles.