The Kill — Emile Zola

The Kill La Curée is the second volume in Zolas great cycle of twenty novels Les Rougon Macquart and the first to establish Paris the capital of modernity as the centre of Zolas narrative world Conceived as a representation of the uncontrollable appetites unleashed by the Second Empire 1852 70 and the transformation of the city by Baron Haussmann the novel combines into a single powerful vision the twin themes of lust for money and lust for pleasure The all pervading promiscuity of the new Paris is reflected in the dissolute and frenetic lives of an unscrupulous property speculator Saccard his neurotic wife Renée and her dandified lover Saccards son Maxime

The Kill La Curée is the second volume in Zola s great cycle of twenty novels Les Rougon Macquart and the first to establish Paris the capital of modernity as the centre of Zola s narrative world Conceived as a representation of the uncontrollable appetites unleashed by the Second Empire 1852 70 and the transformation of the city by Baron Haussmann the novel combines into a single powerful vision the twin themes of lust for money and lust for pleasure The all pervading promiscuity of the new Paris is reflected in the dissolute and frenetic lives of an unscrupulous property speculator Saccard his neurotic wife Renée and her dandified lover Saccard s son Maxime