Émile Zola’s The Fortune of the Rougons (1871), the opening title in the series of twenty novels dealing with the Rougon-Macquart dynasty, explores the origins of the family against the backdrop of the 1851 coup d’état. Major themes across the series have their catalyst here: ambition, greed and psychological flaws are shown to pass from one generation to the next as a result of heredity and social environment. Zola contrasts the cynical opportunism of the Rougons with the romantic idealism of his younger characters. Class tensions are probed as the social-climbing Rougons manoeuvre between their peasant origins and their bourgeois aspirations.

This joins the Naxos AudioBooks series of Zola novels read by ‘bright light’ Leighton Pugh, who is consistently praised for his meticulous, intelligent and empathetic approach to Zola’s writing.