The Miller's Daughter
By Émile Zola
()
About this ebook
Émile Zola
Émile Zola (1840-1902) was a French novelist, journalist, and playwright. Born in Paris to a French mother and Italian father, Zola was raised in Aix-en-Provence. At 18, Zola moved back to Paris, where he befriended Paul Cézanne and began his writing career. During this early period, Zola worked as a clerk for a publisher while writing literary and art reviews as well as political journalism for local newspapers. Following the success of his novel Thérèse Raquin (1867), Zola began a series of twenty novels known as Les Rougon-Macquart, a sprawling collection following the fates of a single family living under the Second Empire of Napoleon III. Zola’s work earned him a reputation as a leading figure in literary naturalism, a style noted for its rejection of Romanticism in favor of detachment, rationalism, and social commentary. Following the infamous Dreyfus affair of 1894, in which a French-Jewish artillery officer was falsely convicted of spying for the German Embassy, Zola wrote a scathing open letter to French President Félix Faure accusing the government and military of antisemitism and obstruction of justice. Having sacrificed his reputation as a writer and intellectual, Zola helped reverse public opinion on the affair, placing pressure on the government that led to Dreyfus’ full exoneration in 1906. Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 and 1902, Zola is considered one of the most influential and talented writers in French history.
Read more from émile Zola
Nana Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Beast Within (La Bête Humaine) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rougon-Macquart: Complete 20 Book Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Kill (La Curée) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Collected Works of Émile Zola: The Complete Works PergamonMedia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsL'Assommoir (The Drinking Den, or Dram Shop) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5THE BELLY OF PARIS: The Tale of The Fat and The Thin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Four Short Stories By Emile Zola Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNana Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dream Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Pot Luck (Pot-Bouille) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5THE LADIES' PARADISE: The Ladies' Delight Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ladies' Paradise (The Ladies' Delight) - Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Downfall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Therese Raquin: Bilingual Edition (English – French) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Masterpiece (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Downfall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fortune of the Rougons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Miller's Daughter
Related ebooks
The Miller's Daughter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Miller's Daughter (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Attack on the Mill Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Attack on the Mill (Unabridged) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTom Pinder, Foundling Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn a Far Wild Shore Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Apprentices Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Green Mummy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Day of Wrath Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTom Pinder, Foundling: A Story of the Holmfirth Flood Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStill Glides the Stream Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhere Deep Seas Moan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEngland, My England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ballad of the Sad Café: And Other Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lady Audley's Secret Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Record of Sin Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Sons of the Morning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAutumn Glory The Toilers of the Field Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThrockmorton Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSilver Cross Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Mere Accident Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Would You Have Done? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEngland, My England - And Other Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Modern Instance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCaught in the Net Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLud-in-the-Mist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Red and the Black Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5After Clare Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Prince and the Page: A Story of the Last Crusade Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA MODERN INSTANCE (American Classics Series) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Performing Arts For You
The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Complete Sherlock Holmes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lucky Dog Lessons: From Renowned Expert Dog Trainer and Host of Lucky Dog: Reunions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life through the Power of Storytelling Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hamlet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Romeo and Juliet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fifth Mountain: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trial Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hollywood's Dark History: Silver Screen Scandals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Robin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Comedy Bible: From Stand-up to Sitcom--The Comedy Writer's Ultimate "How To" Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diamond Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Strange Loop Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coreyography: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best Women's Monologues from New Plays, 2020 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wuthering Heights Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher, and Never Stop Learning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How I Learned to Drive (Stand-Alone TCG Edition) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Life in Parts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Your Huckleberry: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Whale / A Bright New Boise Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mash: A Novel About Three Army Doctors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Dolls House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Midsummer Night's Dream, with line numbers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unsheltered: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Count Of Monte Cristo (Unabridged) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Miller's Daughter
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Miller's Daughter - Émile Zola
The Miller’s Daughter
By
Émile Zola
To the best of our knowledge, the text of this
work is in the Public Domain
.
HOWEVER, copyright law varies in other countries, and the work may still be under
copyright in the country from which you are accessing this website. It is your
responsibility to check the applicable copyright laws in your country before
downloading this work.
The Betrothal
The Attack on the Mill
The Flight
A Terrible Experience
The Return of the French
Chapter I
The Betrothal
Pere Merlier’s mill, one beautiful summer evening, was arranged for a grand fete. In the courtyard were three tables, placed end to end, which awaited the guests. Everyone knew that Francoise, Merlier’s daughter, was that night to be betrothed to Dominique, a young man who was accused of idleness but whom the fair sex for three leagues around gazed at with sparkling eyes, such a fine appearance had he.
Pere Merlier’s mill was pleasing to look upon. It stood exactly in the center of Rocreuse, where the highway made an elbow. The village had but one street, with two rows of huts, a row on each side of the road; but at the elbow meadows spread out, and huge trees which lined the banks of the Morelle covered the extremity of the valley with lordly shade. There was not, in all Lorraine, a corner of nature more adorable. To the right and to the left thick woods, centenarian forests, towered up from gentle slopes, filling the horizon with a sea of verdure, while toward the south the plain stretched away, of marvelous fertility, displaying as far as the eye could reach patches of ground divided by green hedges. But what constituted the special charm of Rocreuse was the coolness of that cut of verdure in the most sultry days of July and August. The Morelle descended from the forests of Gagny and seemed to have gathered the cold from the foliage beneath which it flowed for leagues; it brought with it the murmuring sounds, the icy and concentrated shade of the woods. And it was not the sole source of coolness: all sorts of flowing streams gurgled through the forest; at each step springs bubbled up; one felt, on following the narrow pathways, that there must exist subterranean lakes which pierced through beneath the moss and availed themselves of the smallest crevices at the feet of trees or between the rocks to burst forth in crystalline fountains. The whispering voices of these brooks were so numerous and so loud that they drowned the song of the bullfinches. It was like some enchanted park with cascades falling from every portion.
Below the meadows were damp. Gigantic chestnut trees cast dark shadows. On the borders of the meadows long hedges of poplars exhibited in lines their rustling branches. Two avenues of enormous plane trees stretched across the fields toward the ancient Chateau de Gagny, then a mass of ruins. In this constantly watered district the grass grew to an extraordinary height. It resembled a garden between two wooded hills, a natural garden, of which the meadows were the lawns, the giant trees marking the colossal flower beds. When the sun’s rays at noon poured straight downward the shadows assumed a bluish tint; scorched grass slept in the heat, while an icy shiver passed beneath the foliage.
And there it was that Pere Merlier’s mill enlivened with its ticktack a corner of wild verdure. The structure, built of plaster and planks, seemed as old as the world. It dipped partially in