Product Information
'Neither spoke another word, they were gripped by a shared, unthinking madness as they plunged headlong together into vertiginous rapture.'Orphaned with a substantial inheritance at the age of ten, Pauline Quenu is taken from Paris to live with her relatives, Monsieur and Madame Chanteau and their son Lazare, in the village of Bonneville on the wild Normandy coast. Her presence enlivens the household and Pauline is the only one who can ease Chanteau's gout-ridden agony. Her love of life contrasts with the insularity and pessimism that infects the family, especially Lazare, for whom she develops a devoted passion. Gradually Madame Chanteau starts to take advantage of Pauline's generous nature, and jealousy and resentment threaten to blight all their lives. The arrival of a pretty family friend, Louise, brings tensions to a head.The twelfth novel in the Rougon Macquart series, The Bright Side of Life is remarkable for its depiction of intense emotions and physical and mental suffering. The precarious location of Bonneville and the changing moods of the sea mirror the turbulent relations of the characters, and as the story unfolds its title comes to seem ever more ironic.Product Identifiers
PublisherOxford University Press
ISBN-139780198753612
eBay Product ID (ePID)2317628440
Product Key Features
Book TitleThe Bright Side of Life
AuthorEmile Zola
FormatPaperback
LanguageEnglish
TopicBooks
Publication Year2018
Dimensions
Item Height197mm
Item Width129mm
Additional Product Features
Title_AuthorEmile Zola
TranslatorAndrew Rothwell
Series TitleOxford World's Classics
Country/Region of ManufactureUnited Kingdom