The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion

The different time zone is playing nasty tricks on me and affecting my ability to stick to the usual reading routine. On the other hand, those who were behind, had a decent chance to play catch-up.

This is the thread to comment on chapter V. Here are some questions to ponder over.

1. Have you noticed the transition in the general tone in the novel: from blissfully illicit happiness to the sober and bleak hangover of having a relationship?

2. What are the reasons for this tension and certain coldness between Renee and Maxime? Renee's maternal nature or Maxime's desire to be financially independent?

3. Despite the moral degradation of the Parisian high middle-class soceity, I still see Renee as a victim. At least, she seems to be one in contrast with her husband and step son. Does anyone share the same opinion?

4. I have finished reading chapter V, but I have not read chapters VI and VII. At the same time, I have an uneasy feeling that the play Phedre that Renee and Maxime attended is a harbinger for the disaster for both of them. I read the synopsis of the play that mainly focuses on the relationship between step-son and step-mother, and as any tragedy based on Greek vision of the world, it end badly for many people. Do you think Zola could use symbols in the naturalistic novel?

5. Comment on the following. 'Oh, gloves have their advantages, my dear master: you can touch anything without being defiled' (Larsonneau/ expropriation agent)

Dagny wrote: "He says that "Haussmann gave large balls every winter at the Hotel de Ville." "

Haussmann and haussmannism are quite ubiquitous in the novel. Every pages breathes in an out that feeling of decadent luxury, dissipation, and indulgence.

Financial speculations are quite intriguing in the novel, but they do leave a sickly aftertaste, and some one is going to be trapped in these machinations, and I do not believe that Saccard will be an innocent ignorant victim here ...

Phaedra was what I was thinking of in a post from an earlier chapter about the stepmother/stepson relationship. The play by Racine is a French classic and would have been as well known to French people as Romeo and Juliet is to us. Renee and Maxime have quite different reactions to it.

Interesting point about whether we have sympathy for Renee. The men have so many more options of reinvention, like the way Saccard changed his name and created a business. Her only area of control is her bedroom so she takes it. But later even that is gone. She never feels she is deceiving her husband when she is with Maxime, but she feels she is betraying Maxime when she is with Saccard.

Renee makes the calculation that if she has to sell herself for money, her husband is less detestable than the alternatives. When Maxime finds out, the French text says "you are a ---and he said the word". But is Maxime any better, living off her and planning to marry an heiress?

The name Larsonneau always makes me think of larceny!