The Fortune of the Rougons

The Fortune of the Rougons is a book by French novelist Émile Zola, and was first published in 1871. It is the first novel in Zola's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. Set in the fictional town of Plassans, the story introduces the reader to Adelaide Fouque, who is the common ancestor for the titular families. She has three children - one by her husband, a labourer called Rougon, and two illegitimate children with a poacher called Macquart. The novel follows both branches of the family - the Rougons, their humble beginnings and their ruthless rise to wealth and prestige via the backdrop of the coup d'état that created the French Second Empire under Napoleon III, and the Macquart family, and their struggles as members of the working class.

This translation is the only public domain English translation available, and readers should be warned that it is not considered a particularly good one.

No. 1 in the Les Rougon-Macquart series.

This book has 128,244 words, and was originally published in 1871. This translation by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly was first published in 1898.