His Excellency Eugène Rougon by Émile Zola (review)

A novel of political intrigue featuring a cast of ambitious but morally flawed characters, Son Excellence Eugène Rougon documents a transitional period in French history during which the former authoritarian order slowly began to give way to a more liberal government through reform. However, in spite of its aspirations towards historical accuracy, the text often verges on comedy, with scenes of political satire taking place on the official stage of power — at the Palais Bourbon where the novel begins and ends — as well as backstage among scheming courtiers. Somewhat surprisingly, for all of its entertainment value, Son Excellence remains one of the less well known of the books comprising the Rougon-Macquart saga and has only been the object of sporadic scholarly attention. Yet its merciless detailing of the corruption and opportunism of the elites may strike contemporary readers as timely in an era in which popular distrust towards politicians is so palpable. So does Zola's criticism of imperial censorship of the media, or the power dynamics at play between men and women through the complex relationship of Eugène Rougon, a social climber directed by his fantasies of total domination, and Clorinde, a conniving Italian aristocrat. This new English translation by Brian Nelson is the first in sixty years and should help put the novel back on the nineteenth-century literary map. Besides steering clear of Victorian linguistic clichés, this translation's greatest merit lies in its restoration of the work's uncompromising cynicism and its frank sexual commentary, both of which were muted in bowdlerized nineteenth-century efforts. Stylistically, Nelson often chooses to shorten some of the long sentences of the original by splitting them in half, which results in an improved flow. His approach reveals the novel to be a highly readable text, in line with Flaubert's words of appreciation to George Sand, shortly after its publication in 1876: 'Il n'y a pas un mot de trop. C'est solide et sans aucune blague' (Flaubert, letter of 3 April 1876, in Correspondance, V: Janvier 1876 – mai 1880, ed. by Jean Bruneau and Yvan Leclerc (Paris: Gallimard, 2007), p. 31). Adding on to the overall impression of improved accessibility for anglophone readers, this edition ensures that some historical and cultural background are provided through a concise Introduction by the translator, which also includes useful references to the existing scholarship, as well as several intriguing leads for interpretation. Perhaps one of the most unexpected doors opened by Nelson is the idea that Son Excellence may be a text concerned with literature itself in which all of the protagonists, including the Emperor, fancy themselves as authors able to write France's destiny as well as their own. In Nelson's words, Rougon is 'less a double of Zola than an anti-Zola' (p. xxiii). The implication is that for all of his clever rhetorical games and oratory prowess, this anti-hero lacks commitment to the truth, the supreme virtue of naturalistic art. But the novel is far from a simplistic text: with this new translation, Zola's ambiguous stance on Rougon and Clorinde, both of whom he portrayed with brutal yet sympathetic honesty, shines through, casting doubt on literature's ability to effect change in political and sexual mores.