12 quotes
When a peasant begins to feel the need for instruction, he usually becomes fiercely calculating.
La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
Then the hour of separation came, and Miette climbed the wall again and threw him a kiss. And he saw her no more. Emotion choked him at the thought: he would never see her again—never!
La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
From that time onwards he seemed to feel out of place in Plassans. He would wander through the streets like a lost soul. At last he made a sudden decision, and left for Paris.
La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
A new dynasty is never founded without a struggle. Blood makes good manure. It will be a good thing for the Rougon family to be founded on a massacre, like many illustrious families.
La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
Kings may usurp thrones, republics may be established, but the town scarcely stirs. Plassans sleeps while Paris fights.
La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
When lovers kiss on the cheeks, it is because they are searching, feeling for one another’s lips. Lovers are made by a kiss.
La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
He was one of the simple-minded, one whose simplicity was divine, and who had remained on the threshold of the temple, kneeling before the tapers which from a distance he took for stars.
La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
For a moment he thought he could see, in a flash, the future of the Rougon-Macquart family, a pack of wild, satiated appetites in the midst of a blaze of gold and blood.
La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
Prends garde, mon garçon, on en meurt.
La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
... there was a lack of equilibrium between her nerves and her blood, a disorder of the brain and heart which made her lead a life out of the ordinary, different from that of the rest of the world.
La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
The Revolution of 1848 found all the Rougons on the lookout, frustrated by their bad luck, and ready to use any means necessary to advance their cause. They were a family of bandits lying in wait, ready to plunder and steal.
La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
They kissed each other again and fell asleep. The patch of light on the ceiling now seemed to be assuming the shape of a terrified eye, staring unblinkingly at the pale, slumbering couple, who now reeked of crime under their sheets, and were dreaming that they could see blood raining down in big drops and turning into gold coins as they landed on the floor.
La Fortune des Rougon (1871)