Books like The kill by Émile Zola
Émile Zola’s novel, the second volume of his Rougon‑Macquart saga, follows the grim saga of an incestuous affair and the manipulative ambitions of a financier amid the Parisian boom of the late nineteenth century. Censored upon its 1871 release, the novel fell out of print in the 1950s and remained untranslated for a century, until the first modern English edition was issued. Zola’s unflinching depiction of social excess and metaphysical ruin captures the savage side of naturalism, delivering a bleak portrait of a society in turmoil. The story’s bleak referent is underscored by the novel’s title, which in French is La Curee, and the frank, almost graphic language that has drawn the ire of censors and the admiration of literary critics.
First publish date: 1954
Genre: Historical Fiction/19th Century Historical Fiction
Authors: Émile Zola
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