Abbé Mouret's Transgression (Rougon-Macquart) [Paperback]

Émile Zola (Author), Ernest Alfred Vizetelly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2005

Serge Mouret, the younger son of Francois Mouret (see La Conquete de Plassans), was ordained to the priesthood and appointed Cure of Les Artaud, a squalid village in Provence, to whose degenerate inhabitants he ministered with small encouragement. He had inherited the family taint of the Rougon-Macquarts, which in him took the same form as in the case of his mother-a morbid religious enthusiasm bordering on hysteria. Brain fever followed, and bodily recovery left the priest without a mental past. Dr. Pascal Rougon, his uncle, hoping to save his reason, removed him from his accustomed surroundings and left him at the Paradou, the neglected demesne of a ruined mansion-house near Les Artaud, where he was nursed by Albine, niece of the caretaker. The Abbé fell in love with Albine, and, oblivious of his vows, broke them... (J. G. Patterson)

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Mondial (August 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595690506
• ISBN-13: 978-1595690500
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #614,601 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the most beautiful things i've ever read, March 7, 2010

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Serious Reader "mstanford7" (NYC) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Abbé Mouret's Transgression (Rougon-Macquart) (Paperback)

I wonder that this isn't 10,000 times more popular than it is. I've only read it in English, but still -- it's amazing. It's like a depressive fairy tale (which isn't far from most fairy tales anyway), surreal and heady and intoxicating. It's the story of a preist who falls in love and is forever tortured by it; it's the story of the girl he is never able to fully love because he is always torn towards his idea of God. Here are some quotes that I noted for their particular beauty: So he left her at the end of the garden, sitting in the sunlight on the ground before a hive, whence the bees buzzed like golden berries round her neck, along her bare arms and in her hair, without thought of stinging her. * 'I should like to be a child once more. I should like to be always a child, walking in the shadow of your gown. When I was quite little, I clasped my hands when I uttered the name of Mary. My cradle was white, my body was white, my every thought was white. * And I will rise to your mouth like a subtle flame * He loved God with a love that lifted him out of himself, out of all else, and wrapped him round with a dazzling radiance of glory. He was like a torch that burns away with blazing light. And death seemed to him to be only a great impulse of love.