The Literature Network - Revisiting Decadence: Vadim's Version of Zola's La CurÃ©e

Revisiting Decadence: Vadim's Version of Zola's La CurÃ©e

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From: Literature/Film Quarterly
Date: 20040101
Author:Cousins, Russell

For Emile Zola, the French second Empire ( 1851 -1870) was characterized not by the political stability, growing prosperity, and social progress claimed by Napoleon III, but by corruption, shameless profiteering, and dissoluteness. The disastrous FrancoPrussian War of 1870, when an overconfident and badly prepared French army was humiliated by a highly disciplined and well organized enemy, brought the Empire to an inglorious end and this crushing defeat appeared to the puritanical author both a necessary and warranted correction for the degenerate regime. In his Rougon-Macquart series,1 Zola ...

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