- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (Dec 1 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0192806335
- ISBN-13: 978-0192806338
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 200 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #330,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
'Respectable people... What bastards!' 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 programme of urban reconstruction to make way for 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. The Belly of Paris (Le Ventre de Paris) is the third volume in Zola's famous cycle of twenty novels, Les Rougon-Macquart. It introduces the painter Claude Lantier and in its satirical representation of the bourgeoisie and capitalism complements Zola's other great novels of social conflictand urban poverty.
About the Author
Brian Nelson has also translated Zola's The Ladies' Paradise, Pot Luck, and The Kill for OWC.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
THROUGH the deep silence of the deserted avenue, the carts made their way towards Paris, the rhythmic jolting of the wheels echoing against the fronts of the sleeping houses on both sides of the road, behind the dim shapes of elms. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
THROUGH the deep silence of the deserted avenue, the carts made their way towards Paris, the rhythmic jolting of the wheels echoing against the fronts of the sleeping houses on both sides of the road, behind the dim shapes of elms. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Belly of Paris, Nov 11 2010
By Stephen Balbach - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Belly of Paris (Paperback)
The Belly of Paris (French 1873; tr. Brian Nelson 2007) is one of the earlier works in Zola's 20-volume Rougon-Macquart series. It takes place in 1858 in the great Parisian food market of Les Halles. While the plot is somewhat anemic, the real strength is in the descriptions of Les Halles, its vendors and mainly the food itself. Vast quantities of food. Zola reaches levels of such lush detail to make one both ravenous, and nauseous with sights and smells before the age of refrigeration and knowledge of bacteria. On another level the novel is a satire of the greedy Bourgeois, or middle-class, which are depicted as the comfortable "fat people", in contrast to the revolutionary inclined and dangerous "thin people". Beneath the proper and upright middle class is a greedy animal driven by materialism, ready to stomp out threats to its creature comforts. Zola's criticism of the Bourgeois has both the particular historical interest of 19th century France, and universal timelessness. It's curious to see a novel from the 1870s focusing on middle class obesity and excessive materialism, a problem more relevant to our era, Zola was prescient about where the future was headed. It's even more curious that this novel was only recently translated in 2007, prior to that the most recent translation was from the 1950s and had long been out of print. Although the story itself is somewhat simple, the lush descriptions are fascinating and beautiful, sublime even, no other book in the series is so heavy on description, and his satire of the evils of greed and materialism among the middle class are as relevant and subversive as ever.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Timeless, Nov 14 2011
By M. Hannon "imveiled" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Belly of Paris (Paperback)
I picked this up after seeing it included on a 'great books about food' list. The descriptions of food are both divine and disgusting. The plot - revolution against the uppper class and the blind support of the upper class by those who struggle is timeless. I wonder if a screen play has ever been attempted. This one would translate beautifully to the screen!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Belly of Paris review, Mar 11 2012
By Karen Korman "KKORMAN -BOOK LOVER" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
Wonderfully evocative of the underpinnings of Paris - the language is marvelous - you can taste the food and experience it all.
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