Doctor Pascal (Large Print) [Large Print] [Paperback]

Emile Zola (Author), Mary J. Serrano (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2006

This large print title is set in Tieras 16pt font as reccomended by the RNIB.

Product Details

• Paperback: 636 pages
• Publisher: Echo Library (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1847022154
• ISBN-13: 978-1847022158
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Science and reason defeated by pride and passion, December 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Doctor Pascal (Pocket Classics) (Paperback)

What a plot line! After 30 years of scientific and genealogical research, a doctor in his late 50s decides his life is meaningless without children and accepts his 25-year old niece's offer to have his child. He dies of a heart attack, and his mother manages to destroy all his papers except his family tree diagram. This, the last in the 20-book Rougon-Macquart cycle was described by Zola himself as the summary and the conclusion of his work. Intellectually, it is highly adventurous in parts, even by today's standards, but it seems to fall flat at the end with its implication that the whole point of life is simply to breed and pass on your genes. You could say this book is the ultimate hymn to occupational therapy. However lofty a view human beings may have of themselves and their activities, they are really no different from any other form of life.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars To Sum Things Up, March 4, 2004

By 

myshiak (washington, dc) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Doctor Pascal (Pocket Classics) (Paperback)

Doctor Pascal's story is told here. The novel is more about him and his niece than about his musing on the heredity theory. All his scientific talks show no more than just one side of his personality, because showing that a certain physiological or a psychological anomaly passes either directly or indirectly from ascendants to descendants is a purely scientific task. A novel can show no proofs, only examples of such passing. Thus, Angelique Rougon in "Le Reve/The Dream", Pauline Quenu in "La Joie de Vivre/Zest for Life" and, in particular Jeanne Grandjean in "Une Page d'Amour/A Love Episode" clearly inherited a neurotic illness from their great-grand-mother Adelaide Fouque. And three members of the generation below (sons of Maxime Rougon, Nana and Claude Lantier) died in their childhood of various diseases, which shows complete family degeneracy. A more direct passing would be Gervaise Macquart's ("l'Assommoir/the Drum Shop")addiction to alcohol, which she inherited from her father Antoine, who died of a spontaneous ignition in a drunken stupor. However, there is no explanation either in any of the novels or in the genealogical tree how such phlegmatic and mercenary-minded people as Lisa Quenu and her husband ("Le Ventre de Paris/The Underbelly of Paris") produced such a joyous, generous and selfless daughter Pauline ("La Joie de Vivre/Zest for Life") or how Francois and Marthe Mouret, Adelaide Fouque's grandchildren, who die after losing their sanity ("La Conquete de Plassans/The Conquest of Plassans") and who produced a feeble-minded daughter and a neurotic son, whose disease developed into mysticism ("La faute de Abbe Mouret/The Sin of Father Mouret"), could along with that produce such an vigorous and business-minded son Octave ("Pot-Bouille/Pot Luck" and "Au Bonheur des Dames/"the Ladies' Paradise"). What makes it particularly hard to explain the genetic influence is the fact that family members (especially in late Rougon-Macquart novels) interact with each other little if any. Thus, three Lantier brothers seem totally alien to each other and their parents, Angelique Rougon "Le Reve/The Dream" is brought up under no influence of her mother Sidonie, Helene Grandjean ("Une Page d'Amour/A Love Episode") never has any contact with her brother Francois and Jean Macquart ("La Terre/The Earth" and "La Debacle/The Downfall") with his sisters Lisa and Gervaise. Furthermore, if to look at environment vs. heredity, things turn out to be in favor of the former, because there are characters who undergo a personality change. Thus, Octave Mouret in "Au Bonheur des Dames/The Ladies' Paradise" is a lot different from Octave in "Pot-Boille/Pot Luck", Arstide Saccard in "L'Argent/The Money" from Arstide in "La Curee/The Kill". Therefore, the heredity theory in Zola's novels is portrayed to a much lesser degree than the history of the French society under Napoleon III.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More than just an epilogue, May 3, 2005

By 

Karl Janssen (Olathe, KS United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Doctor Pascal (Hardcover)

This is the final book in Zola's twenty-novel Rougon-Macquart series. While it serves the purpose of an epilogue, it is also an impressive novel in its own right, and stands alone as a great work of literature. Pascal Rougon is a semi-retired physician who devotes most of his time to the study of evolution. An important asset in his research is the cabinet of files he keeps on his own diverse and dysfunctional family, the Rougons and Macquarts. Through detailed descriptions of these family dossiers, Zola reviews the events of the previous nineteen novels. In doing so, he provides us with a "Where are they now?" synopsis of the characters, and thoroughly explains the theories of heredity that underlie the series.

Evolutionary discourse only comprises a portion of the book, however, as most of the novel is devoted to the relationship between Pascal and his young niece Clotilde. In Pascal, Zola creates a very autobiographical character, and allows us glimpses into his private life. Zola fancied himself a scientist, and his novels his experiments. At the time Zola wrote this book he was falling in love with a young mistress of his own. Throughout the book, Pascal, approaching old age, looks back on his life and contemplates its purpose. Zola uses Pascal as a mouthpiece to ponder aloud philosophical issues, like the conflict between knowledge and faith. Can the two coexist, or must one vanquish the other in order for mankind to truly progress? He debates the definition of a life well-spent: Is it better to devote one's time on this earth to work, or to the enjoyment of simpler pleasures like love and family? While many men seek immortality through offspring, Pascal has spent his whole life striving for an intellectual legacy of scientific achievement. As he feels the end of his life drawing nearer, he, like Zola, wonders if he has made the right choice in life.

I would not put this work in the same class as Zola's four or five masterpieces, but it's in the better half of the Rougon-Macquart saga. Those who have enjoyed some of Zola's better-known novels will find much to enjoy in this one as well.