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daughter of Zola and Jeanne
1890
(March)
The Beast in Man
1891
(March)
Money.
(April) Elected President of the Société des Gens de Lettres. (25 September) Birth of Jacques, son of Zola and Jeanne
1892
(June)
The Débâcle
1893
(July)
Doctor Pascal,
the last of the Rougon-Macquart novels. Fêted on a visit to London
1894
(August)
Lourdes,
the first novel of the trilogy
Three Cities.
(22 December) Dreyfus found guilty by a court martial
1896
(May)
Rome
1898
(13 January) ‘J’accuse’, his article in defence of Dreyfus, published in
L’Aurore.
(21 February) Found guilty of libelling the Minister of War and given the maximum sentence of one year’s imprisonment and a fine of 3,000 francs. Appeal for retrial granted on a technicality. (March)
Paris.
(23 May) Retrial delayed. (18 July) Leaves for England instead of attending court
1899
(4 June) Returns to France. (October)
Fecundity,
the first of his
Four Gospels
1901
(May)
Toil,
the second ‘Gospel’
1902
(29 September) Dies of fumes from his bedroom fire, thechimney having been capped either by accident or anti-Dreyfusard design. Wife survives. (5 October) Public funeral
1903
(March)
Truth,
the third ‘Gospel’, published posthumously.
Justice
was to be the fourth
1908
(4 June) Remains transferred to the Panthéon

 
    The Ladies’ Paradise: plan of the area
     

The Ladies’ Paradise
     

CHAPTER 1
     
    D ENISE had come on foot from the Gare Saint-Lazare. She and her two brothers had arrived on a train from Cherbourg and had spent the night on the hard bench of a third-class carriage. She was holding Pépé by the hand, and Jean was walking behind her, all three exhausted from the journey, frightened and lost in the midst of the vast city of Paris. They kept looking up at the houses, and at every intersection they asked the way to the Rue de la Michodière, where their uncle Baudu lived. But on arriving in the Place Gaillon, the young girl suddenly stopped in surprise.
    ‘Oh!’ she said, ‘look at that, Jean!’
    And they stood there, huddled together, all in black, in the mourning clothes bought on their father’s death. Denise, rather skinny for her twenty years, and looking down-at-heel, was carrying a small parcel, while on her other side her little brother of five was clinging to her arm; her other brother, a strapping youth of sixteen, stood looking over her shoulder, his arms dangling.
    ‘Well!’ she resumed, after a pause. ‘There’s a shop for you!’
    They were at the corner of the Rue de la Michodière and the Rue Neuve-Saint-Augustin, * in front of a drapery shop, the windows of which, on that mild, pale October day, were bursting with bright colours. Eight o’clock was striking at the church of Saint-Roch, and the streets were deserted except for early risers, office workers hurrying to their desks and housewives scurrying to the shops. Two shop assistants, standing on a step-ladder outside the door, had just finished hanging up some woollen goods, while in the window in the Rue Neuve-Saint-Augustin another assistant, on hands and knees and with his back turned, was delicately folding a piece of blue silk. The shop, still waiting for its customers—the staff themselves had only just arrived—was buzzing inside like a beehive coming to life.
    ‘I say!’ said Jean. ‘That beats Valognes … Your shop wasn’t as grand as that.’
    Denise nodded. She had spent two years in Valognes, at Cornaille’s, the main draper in the town; and this shop whichhad suddenly appeared before her, this building which seemed so enormous, brought a lump to her throat and held her rooted to the spot, excited, fascinated, oblivious to everything else. The high plate-glass door, facing the Place Gaillon, reached the mezzanine floor and was surrounded by elaborate decorations covered with gilding. Two allegorical figures, two laughing women with bare breasts thrust forward, were unrolling a scroll bearing the inscription:
The Ladies’ Paradise.
The shop windows