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The Sin of Abbé Mouret - Oxford World's Classics
The Sin of Abbé Mouret - Oxford World's Classics
paperback
Published:
11 May, 2017
paperback
Published:
11 May, 2017
Description
'I really don't understand how people can blame a priest so much, when he strays from the path.' The Sin of Abbé Mouret tells the compelling story of the young priest Serge Mouret. Striving after spiritual purity and sanctity, he lives a life of constant prayer, but his neglect of all physical needs leads to serious illness, followed by amnesia. No longer knowing he is a priest, he falls in love with his nurse Albine. Together, like a latter-day Adam and Eve, they roam through an Eden-like garden called the 'Paradou', seeking a forbidden tree in whose shade they will make love. Zola memorably shows their gradual awakening to sexuality, and his poetic descriptions of the luxuriant and beautiful Paradou create a lyrical celebration of Nature. When Serge regains his memory and recalls his priestly vows, anguish inevitably follows. The whole story, with its numerous biblical parallels, becomes a poetic reworking of the Fall of Man and a questioning of the very meaning of innocence and sin. Zola explores the conflict between Church and Nature, the sterility of the Church and the fertility of Nature. This new translation includes a wide-ranging and helpful introduction and explanatory notes.
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9780198736639 |
| ISBN10 | 0198736630 |
| Number Of Pages | 352 |
| Item Weight | 246 g |
| Product Dimensions | 128 x 196 x 19 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | Oxford University Press |
| Format | paperback |
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Media Reviews
It is easy to savor certain installments in isolation [...] But to read through the Rougon-Macquart in Oxford's fine new translations - fourteen of the twenty volumes retranslated since 2000, seven in the last four years - is to see the mosaic that only Zola's full scheme makes possible. * Aaron Matz, The New York Review of Books *
GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
Valerie Minogue has taught at the universities of Cardiff, Queen Mary, London, and Swansea. She is co-founder of Romance Studies and has been President of the Émile Zola Society, London, since 2005. She was made an Officier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques in 2012.