Synopses & Reviews
Unjustly deported to Devil's Island following Louis-Napoleon's coup-d'etat in December 1851, Florent Quenu escapes and returns to Paris. He finds the city changed beyond recognition. The old Marche des Innocents has been knocked down as part of Haussmann's grand program of urban reconstruction, replaced by Les Halles, the spectacular new food markets. Disgusted by a bourgeois society whose devotion to food is inseparable from its devotion to the Government, Florent attempts an insurrection. Les Halles, apocalyptic and destructive, play an active role in Zola's picture of a world in which food and the injustice of society are inextricably linked.
This is the first English translation in fifty years of Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris). The third in Zola's great cycle, Les Rougon-Macquart, it is as enthralling as Germinal, Therese Raquin, and the other novels in the series. Its focus on the great Paris food hall, Les Halles--combined with Zola's famous impressionist descriptions of food--make this a particularly memorable novel. Brian Nelson's lively translation captures the spirit of Zola's world and his Introduction illuminates the use of food in the novel to represent social class, social attitudes, political conflicts, and other aspect of the culture of the time. The bibliography and notes ensure that this is the most critically up-to-date edition of the novel in print.
Synopsis:
New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky's deft translation brings new life to Emile Zola's rich characters and stunning depiction of Les Halles, the food markets of 1850s Paris
The Belly of Paris is the dramatic story of Florent Quenu, a convict who has miraculously escaped imprisonment on Devil's Island after being falsely accused of a killing during a political demonstration. Back in Paris after his long confinement, Florent moves in with his brother's family in the newly rebuilt Les Halles market and is soon caught in a dangerous maelstrom of food and politics as the dramatic difference between fat and thin (the rich and the poor) becomes too obvious to ignore.
Mark Kurlansky's introduction celebrates Emile Zola's role as a naturalist, describing his twenty-volume series of Rougon-Macquart novels, and the culinary delights of The Belly of Paris.
Synopsis:
Part of Emile Zola's multigenerational Rougon-Macquart saga, The Belly of Paris is the story of Florent Quenu, a wrongly accused man who escapes imprisonment on Devil's Island. Returning to his native Paris, Florent finds a city he barely recognizes, with its working classes displaced to make way for broad boulevards and bourgeois flats. Living with his brother's family in the newly rebuilt Les Halles market, Florent is soon caught up in a dangerous maelstrom of food and politics. Amid intrigue among the market's sellers-the fishmonger, the charcutiere, the fruit girl, and the cheese vendor-and the glorious culinary bounty of their labors, we see the dramatic difference between fat and thin (the rich and the poor) and how the widening gulf between them strains a city to the breaking point.
Translated and with an Introduction by the celebrated historian and food writer Mark Kurlansky, The Belly of Paris offers fascinating perspectives on the French capital during the Second Empire-and, of course, tantalizing descriptions of its sumptuous repasts.
Don't Miss
