Paris in Balzac and Zola

Balzac's Paris is a city of the main chance, at least for those of ambition such as the venal and selfish Mme. Vauquer. Undoubtedly Old Goriot presents a class-stratified environment, with the heartless aristocracy/bourgeoisie at one level and the declining old man in the rooming house at quite another. The social standing of the characters is established by the options they have with respect to the spaces that they inhabit. For example, in Maison Vauquer, which is a metaphorical crossroads for its tenants, EugFne is a young man on a budget who from time to time splurges. Victorine, with whom he falls in love, has been shunted to the house because her wealthy family has disowned her. Only Vautrin, who turns out to be a branded criminal, has the run of the house, being endowed with a key (Balzac 39-40) and thus the freedom to roam the city at will and to come and go entirely at his conveni

. . .
the Rougon-Macquart novel series is instructive: The Natural and Social History of a Family under the Second Empire (Buss x). As Zola himself states in his preface to his play ThTrFse Raquin, he sees Naturalism as the aesthetic culmination of efforts to bring art "into closer relation with the great movement toward truth and experimental science which has since the last century been on the increase in every manifestation o the human intellect" (377). Truth takes shape as the conditions of existence in which Gervaise, her lover, her children, and her husband are obliged to exist and by which their fate is determined. Zola cites the "quite appalling ills" that he depicts in the narrative, including what he refers to as the "language of the people" (3). The impression given is that he has experimented scientifically with the uses to which vulgar language could be put in order to render the truth of his narrative depiction, with the result that the reader forms a picture of Paris characterized not by light and elegance or even vaulting social ambition but by "the environment of harsh labour and poverty" (Zola 4). L'Assommoir's Paris is consistent with the physical facts surrounding the city's transformation in the 1860s, described as
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Anastasie Delphine, Haussmannization Paris, Maison Vauquer, Raquin Naturalism, Lantier Coupeau, Darwinists Lowenberg, Mme Lorilleux, Lantier Gervaise, Indeed Coupeau, L'Assommoir's Paris, york penguin, l'assommoir trans robin, robin buss york, penguin 2000, paris city, vulgar language, mme lorilleux, mental life, trans robin buss, double effect, york penguin 2000, parisian life, buss york penguin, experience paris, urban renewal,
Approximate Word count = 2835
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

More Essays on Paris in Balzac and Zola