by Emile Zola
stamped paper: official documents, to be authentic, had to bear a government stamp.
Saccard … wife: this part of Saccard’s life is related in The Kill.
Karl Marx … Gazette: the full title of the newspaper was Neue Rheinische Zeitung: Organ der Demokratie (‘New Rhenish Newspaper: Organ of Democracy’). Karl Marx (1818–83), the influential socialist thinker, published this German daily newspaper in Cologne from June 1848 until May 1849. It was called ‘New’ because it followed Marx’s previous Rheinische Zeitung, suppressed in 1843. Marx arrived in Paris in 1843, was expelled at the end of 1844, moved to Brussels, then visited England with Friedrich Engels and went back to Paris briefly in 1848, before returning to Cologne then London in 1849. The first part of Marx’s famous Capital appeared in French, translated by Joseph Roy, in 1867. Marx died in London in 1883.
June Days: in fact Marx had left Paris before the insurrection of the people of Paris against the government in the ‘June Days’ of 1848. General Cavaignac was sent to suppress the protest, and in the resulting conflict over ten thousand people were killed or injured and four thousand deported to Algeria.
universal happiness: for Sigismond’s theories Zola drew largely on La Quintessence du socialisme (‘The Quintessence of Socialism’, 1886), by A. Schaeffle, who discusses various versions of contemporary socialist economic theory. He also read the articles of the collectivist Jules Guesde in Le Cri du Peuple, and Georges Renard’s ‘Le Socialisme actuel en France’ in La Revue socialiste (1887–8).
wife … Lombardy: Maxime was the lover of his stepmother Renée, Saccard’s wife, but, encouraged by his father, he married the ailing consumptive Louise de Mareuil for the sake of her dowry of a million francs. She died six months after the marriage. This story is related in The Kill.
Avenue de l’Impératrice: now the Avenue Foch.
maisons de plaisance: elaborate mansions built for the pleasure of their owners, usually in the countryside or on the outskirts of big cities, associated with aristocratic festivities and often built by aristocrats for their mistresses. Sometimes also called folies (‘follies’), like the Folie-Beauvilliers mentioned below. They were less grand than chateaux but grander than the average hôtel (large townhouse or mansion).
Rue du Cardinal Fesch: the street was named to honour the uncle of Napoleon I, but later renamed Rue de Chateaudun to commemorate a battle of the Franco-Prussian War. A number of mansions were destroyed by Haussmann’s new streets.
Tuileries: the official residence of the Emperor. It was burned down in 1870.
La Villette … Saint-Mandé … Châtillon: all in or near Paris—La Villette in the north-east, Saint-Mandé, a small town in the Île de France, and Châtillon a south-western suburb.
Work Foundation: its French title, ‘L’Oeuvre du Travail’ (‘The Work of Toil’) brings together the titles of two of Zola’s works— L’Oeuvre (1886) and the later Travail (1901).
École Polytechnique: state-run institution of higher education and research, one of France’s grandes écoles that open the path to important careers in industry, government, and public service. Initially located in the Latin Quarter of central Paris, it moved to Palaiseau in 1976.
Port Said: this work, the starting-point of the Suez Canal, had begun on 25 April 1859; see note to p. 8.
Lebanon range: the construction of a Beirut–Damascus road through the Lebanon mountain range was completed in 1863, after the interruption of the war in Syria in 1860.
Taurus range: mountain complex in southern Turkey dividing the coastal region from the Anatolian Plateau.
railway system: after the Paris Peace Treaty of 1856, at the conclusion of the Crimean War, Turkey granted mining, banking, and railway concessions to European investors, and railway construction began in the mid-nineteenth century.
the Sultan: the thirty-second Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Abdul Aziz (1830–76) modernized the Ottoman navy and established the Ottoman railway network, but was later accused of betraying Turkish interests by his granting of concessions to foreigners. In May 1876, after a popular uprising in Constantinople (Istanbul), he was deposed by his ministers, and his death—recorded as suicide but perhaps assassination—occurred a few days later.
bank in Constantinople: the Ottoman Bank in Constantinople was founded in 1856, first as a British establishment then Anglo-French in 1863.
Grand Vizier: the most powerful minister of the Sultan in the Ottoman Empire.
Zouaves … Lamoricière: in 1849 an Italian constituent assembly had proclaimed a Roman Republic, whereupon a French expeditionary force seized Rome, re-established the power of Pope Pius IX, and left a protective military presence there. After the Italian War, in which France had supported the cause of Italian independence, the Treaty of Villafranca in 1859 proposed various reforms to be undertaken by the Pope. Then, in 1860, the Pope, struggling to keep control of Rome and the Papal States, almost broke with France, which was, however, still supporting him against the encroachments of King Victor-Emmanuel, and put General Lamoricière in charge of organizing an army of twenty thousand multinational Catholic volunteers. The Italian minister Cavour demanded that the Pope disband this army. The Pope refused and Italian troops were sent into the Papal States. On 18 September 1860 the Papal troops were defeated at Castelfidardo near Ancona. After Castelfidardo, the Franco-Belgian battalion of the Papal army became the Papal Zouaves.
Carmel: Mount Carmel is regarded as a holy place where, according to the Bible (1 Kings 18), Elijah rebuilt an ancient ruined altar and for a time lived. The Carmelite religious order was founded in the twelfth century on the site said to have been Elijah’s cave.
Egyptian expedition: Napoleon I’s bold bid to follow in the footsteps of Alexander the Great by conquering the East. The campaign in Egypt and Syria began with Napoleon’s setting out from Toulon in 1798. He was able to capture Malta and invade Egypt, but the French campaign in Egypt and Syria, which had been intended to protect French trade interests and damage British power in the East, ended in 1801. The French fleet was destroyed at the Battle of the Nile in August 1798, and Napoleon and his army, cut off from France, were eventually, despite many victories, forced to withdraw.
Sidney … St-Jean-d’Acre: Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith (1764–1840), British naval officer who fought in the American and the French revolutionary wars, served in the Royal Swedish Navy during the war with Russia, then in the Mediterranean with the Royal Navy. Napoleon said that if he had been able to take Acre in 1799 he would have been able to make himself Emperor of the East. He marched on Acre after capturing Gaza and Jaffa. Smith, having sailed to Acre, helped the Turkish commander to reinforce the defences. He was able to capture French siege artillery being sent by ship from Egypt, and to bombard French troops from the sea. The French made several attacks but on 9 May a final French assault was repelled. Soon after this Napoleon left the army in Egypt and sailed back to France. Acre, in the Ottoman province of Syria (now Akko, in Israel), was previously a Crusader fortress.
Druzes … intervene: the Druze–Maronite massacre had occurred two years earlier. After the partitioning of Lebanon in 1842 conflicts between Christians and Druzes in Lebanon came to a head in July 1860, when Druze and Sunni Muslims killed thousands of Maronite and other Christians in Lebanon and Damascus: churches and missionary schools were burnt down; the Druzes and Muslims also suffered heavy losses. Napoleon III, citing France’s long-standing role as protector of Christians in the Ottoman Empire, intervened, with the agreement of the Ottoman Empire, sending an expeditionary force of six thousand soldiers in August 1860 to impose order. That army remained in Lebanon until 1861.
Fuad Pasha: Mehmed Fuad Pasha (1814–69), pro-European Ottoman statesman, in favour of reforms and modernization. He served at various times as Grand Vizier, army commander, and Minister for Foreign Affairs.
The Porte: or Ottoman Porte, was the name given to the central government of the Ottoman Empire. The name derived from the High Gate
of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, where diplomats were met. The name was later used for the Foreign Ministry.
Universal Bank: the ‘Banque Universelle’—the name is similar in style to the Union Générale, founded in 1878 by Paul Eugène Bontoux, and which crashed in 1882. See Introduction, p. xi.
Théâtre des Variétés: famous theatre on the Boulevard Montmartre, inaugurated in 1807. Some of Offenbach’s operettas were staged there, and it is in that theatre that Nana makes her stage debut in Nana, the ninth volume of the Rougon-Macquart series.
Mabille: the Bal Mabille was an open-air dance-hall on the Champs Élysées.
Havas agency: the first French news agency, created in 1835.
Opéra-Comique: in the eighteenth century the Opéra-Comique (now the Théâtre National de l’Opéra-Comique) was housed in the Salle Favart, in the second arrondissement of Paris. In 1838, when this theatre burned down, the company moved into the second Salle Favart built on the same site, where it stayed from 1840 until 1887.
Cartouche: a notorious Parisian highwayman, Louis Dominique Garthausen (1693–1721), known as ‘Cartouche’ (‘cartridge’), probably as a result of mispronunciation of ‘Garthausen’. His daring exploits were celebrated in ballads and popular prints.
Hôtel Drouot: famous Paris auction house, specializing in art and antiques.
Tuileries: the Tuileries here used metonymically for Napoleon III, who sported a moustache and a goatee beard.
Meissonier: Jean-Louis Ernest Meissonier (1815–91), French painter and sculptor, famous for his paintings of Napoleon I and military scenes. His work commanded huge prices.
milked her: a reworking of a much-quoted remark of Baron Rothschild, who served as part model for Zola’s depiction of Gundermann: ‘Milk the cow but not to the point of making it moo’ (‘Traire la vache mais pas jusqu’à la faire crier’).
covered passages: covered shopping arcades, built between 1814 and 1848. Walter Benjamin, the German cultural critic, uses the image of the ‘passage’ as a focal point in his celebrated study of city life and consumerism, the ‘Arcades Project’: Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, ed. Rolf Tiedemann, trans. Howard Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin (New York: Belknap Press, 2002). See Brian Nelson’s Introduction to Zola’s The Ladies’ Paradise (Oxford World’s Classics, 1995), p. x.
agreement … Rome: the agreement known as the September Convention was signed on 15 September 1864; Napoleon III was to remove French troops from Rome within two years, and Italy undertook to guarantee the boundaries of the Papal States and allow the creation of a Papal military force. The Italian government moved from Turin to Florence to indicate that it would not establish itself in Rome, which had been declared the capital of Italy by the first Italian government in 1861. French troops duly left Rome in December 1866. This treaty was opposed by the Pope, French Catholics, and Italian patriots. The French Catholics wanted Napoleon III to go on protecting the Pope. Napoleon III hoped the Pope would come to terms with the Italian government and allow it to move from Florence to Rome. Pope Pius IX, however, rejected all proposals, and Garibaldi’s army invaded Latium and Rome in 1867. The Italians were defeated at the Battle of Mentana by two thousand French troops sent by Napoleon III, and a French garrison remained in Rome to defend the Pope. After France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War in September 1870 the French garrison was recalled and King Victor-Emmanuel tried to negotiate an arrangement by which the Italian army would be allowed peacefully to enter Rome as a protection for the Pope; these overtures failed and the Italian army entered by force. Rome and Latium were then annexed to the Kingdom of Italy.
Code: the ‘Code de commerce’, the commercial code, established in 1807, dealing precisely with shareholding companies, and according to which, until 1867, the constitution of share companies was subject to governmental authorization.
our shares: Sabatani’s role as frontman closely follows that of Balensi and Izoard, who acted as frontmen for Bontoux’s Union Générale in 1879.
L’Espérance: a translation of the title might be ‘Hope’ or ‘Hopefulness’.
paper … power: Eugène Bontoux, after setting up his Union Générale, acquired several financial journals.
discharge: military service was compulsory in the Second Empire.
Bouffes: the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, founded in 1855, also known in the nineteenth-century as the ‘Salle Choiseul’, where Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld was first performed in 1858. In November 1866 Hervé’s Les Chevaliers de la table ronde (Knights of the Round Table) had its first night, followed in January 1867 by Delphine Ugalde’s operetta Halte au moulin. Saccard’s ‘little singer’ was presumably performing in one of these.
the fortifications: the walls of Paris had been strengthened in July 1840 at the insistence of Adolphe Thiers, President of the Conseil d’État. A new fortified enclosure, the ‘enceinte de Thiers’, was built between 1841 and 1844. Its ineffectiveness was demonstrated in the German siege of 1871, and it was later dismantled. Designated as a ‘non-building zone’, it became a slum area, known commonly as les fortifs, largely inhabited by the poor who had been driven out of their homes by the demolition and property speculation that accompanied the Haussmanization of Paris.
most bleak: Ernest Vizetelly, in his 1894 translation, comments in a note that the picture Zola gives of the Cité de Naples is no exaggeration, as he discovered for himself on visiting some of the ‘Cités’ in Paris in the 1880s. When he took Zola round the East End of London in 1893, Zola commented that even the worst dens there were not as bad as those of Paris.
conceived him: Zola had accepted much of Prosper Lucas’s work on heredity, which (wrongly) maintained that the moment of impregnation had an effect on the resulting child—hence Victor’s ‘crushed cheek’.
Man in the Iron Mask: a mysterious prisoner in the reign of Louis XIV, whose identity has been much discussed; subject of a novel with this title by Alexandre Dumas père (part of The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later, 1847), in which the prisoner is said to have been a brother of the king.
25 April: in 1867. Zola more readily offers months than years, and dates are not always clear, since he sometimes fudges them.
Tonkin: the old name for what is now North Vietnam.
‘The second of December is a crime!’: 2 December 1851, the date of Napoleon III’s coup d’état.
Denmark affair: a reference to Denmark’s loss of the Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein to Prussia. See note to p. 6.
Solferino: the battle of 1859 in which French and Sardinian-Piedmontese forces led by Napoleon III defeated the Austrians led by the Emperor Franz-Joseph, with terrible losses on both sides. Napoleon III signed an armistice with Austria, the Treaty of Villafranca, in July 1859, without consulting his Sardinian-Piedmontese allies. Most of Lombardy was ceded by Austria to France, to be transferred thereafter to Sardinia-Piedmont. The Veneto, however, remained in Austrian hands, and although Napoleon III had supported Italian independence against Austria, he ultimately alienated the Italians by his defence of the Pope against Italian attempts to gain control of Rome and the Papal States.
the Cote financière: literally ‘The Financial Quotation’, amounting to something like ‘stock-exchange listings’.
hundred-louis: the louis was worth twenty francs.
Mont Valérien: hill (162 m) to the west of Paris; an area of green parkland with splendid views over the city, it is an ancient site of pilgrimage, home to various religious establishments since the fifteenth century.
Turkey-red cotton: the rich red dye of Adrianople (now Edirne) in Turkey was brought into France in the eighteenth century and became very popular, the name ‘adrinople’ being used in French, as here by Zola, for red-dyed cotton.
the very start: in fact, in The Kill Saccard starts as a republican journalist, who only changes sides when he sees the success of the coup d’état.
Bismarck: Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg. Otto von Bismarc
k (1815–98) was an important figure in Europe from the 1860s until dismissed by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1890. He was Minister President of Prussia from 1862 to1890, and played a major role in the unification of Germany.
Kaiser Wilhelm: Wilhelm I of Prussia.
Le Siècle: newspaper founded in 1836, it originally supported constitutional monarchy but at the end of the July Monarchy in 1848 the paper switched to republicanism and opposed the rise of Napoleon III. It ceased publication in 1932.
Italians in Rome: Rome was taken by the Italians in September 1870.
loans to speculators: a holder of capital can make a loan to speculators who, not having sufficient funds for the immediate settlement, deposit the stock with the lender for a fixed term, at the end of which the purchaser either collects money on, or pays, the difference between the purchase price and the price at time of settlement. The lender receives interest on the loan.
Le Figaro: originally a satirical weekly, founded in 1826 and published rather irregularly until 1854. It became a daily in November 1866; Zola was one of the paper’s early contributors.