Abbe Mouret's Transgression

"Abbé Mouret's Transgression" (La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret), written in 1874, is perhaps the most powerful and poetic of all Zola's tales; it is that in which fantasy bears the greatest part, and in which "naturalisme" for a while disappears. The opening chapters describe a profligate and almost pagan village in Provence, and here "naturalisme" is at home, and in its proper place. The fifth novel in Zola's "Rougon-Macquart" series, "Abbé Mouret's Transgression" is the sequel to "The Conquest ...