La Conquête de Plassans [SEP] series
La Conquête de Plassans
La Conquête de Plassans (1874) is the fourth novel in Émile Zola's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. In many ways a sequel to the first novel in the cycle, "La Fortune des Rougon" (1871), this novel is again centred on the fictional Provençal town of Plassans and its plot revolves around a sinister cleric's attempt at political intrigue with disastrous consequences for some of the townsfolk.
At the start of the novel, the home life of Francois Mouret
around Plassans (modelled on his childhood home, Aix-en-Provence), ("La Fortune des Rougon", "La Conquête de Plassans", "La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret" and "Le Docteur Pascal"). "La Débâcle", the military novel is set for the most part in country districts of eastern France; its dénouement takes place in the capital during the civil war leading to the suppression of the Paris Commune. Though Paris has its role in La Bête humaine the most striking incidents