Ik had mezelf voorgenomen om de hele reeks van "Rougon-Macquart" te lezen, en deze keer in de juiste volgorde. ('De mijn' en 'Het meesterwerk' had ik al eerder gelezen.)
Deel 1, Het fortuin van de Rougons, en deel 2, Buit maken, vond ik zeer goed.
Maar met De buik van Parijs heb ik veel moeite. Het blijft maar doorgaan, over de markt, over tonnen voedsel, over vlees en vis, al dan niet vers, over bloedpensen, over stinkende straten, enz., enz.
Naturalisme, jawel.

This book, the 3rd book in the Rougon-Macquart series, focuses on the Les Halles, the fresh produce market in the center of Paris. The main character is Florent who, after escaping from Devil’s Island has returned to Paris. Florent is a scholar and teacher. Florent ends up staying with his younger brother Quenu is who has inherited and runs their uncle’s butcher shop. Quenu’s wife Lisa is the Macquart and is sister to Gervaise, the protagonist of The Assommoir. Florent also befriends the painter Claude, one of Gervaise's sons, and protagonist of The Masterpiece.
Zola has long passages describing the food and processes of the market in great detail. He also describes the less savory aspects of the food processes, such as the carcasses, remains and blood, to contrast with his almost euphoric descriptions of the look, texture and smell of the foods, including one especially sentient passage on the smells of the cheeses.
Zola also introduces many characters that operate in the markets, especially various fishwives and other female market sellers, old and young as they go about their lives. Their petty jealousies, spiteful gossip and competitiveness, play active parts in the novel’s plot.
The plot follows Florent as, after being viewed skeptically by the market workers, he is treated differently when he becomes a food inspector for the government. However, he still has strong republican views and conspires with other agitators in planning activities against the Second Empire. His destiny is impacted by both his choices and the actions and attitudes of both his family and the market workers.
I enjoyed Zola’s food and processing depictions even if others felt they were over-described. I thought he effectively portrayed a community consisting of the food center of Paris and its denizens. Yet, while the plot and characters seemed attractive on the surface, I felt Zola struggled in his execution and depiction of the plot events and side characters, several of whom I had trouble distinguishing between. My feeling may have been affected by the unattractiveness of these characters’ pettiness and Florent’s role as his own worst enemy, which made it difficult to sympathize with him.
However, despite often plodding through the middle portion of the story, I did feel that Zola effectively brought the story’s events and characters to a satisfactory conclusion. I have wavered between 3 and 4 stars for this one. Based on Zola’s wonderful descriptions and the story’s plot design, I feel I should have enjoyed this one more than I did. I have decided on a 3.4 rating, rounded down to 3 stars, to reflect that, while I enjoyed reading this one, I enjoyed it a bit less than the several Zola’s I’ve rated as 4 stars.

“...quando ogni lume fu spento all’interno, e i mercati furono inondati dalla luce del giorno, apparvero quadrati, uniformi, come una macchina moderna e smisurata, che so, un’enorme macchina a vapore, una caldaia che dovesse servire alla digestione di un popolo, un ventre gigantesco, bullonato, ribadito, fatto di legno, di vetro e di ferro, di una eleganza, di una potenza da motore meccanico azionato dal calore del combustibile, e dalla furia fremente e vertiginosa delle ruote.”

Nelle intenzioni di Zola Il ventre di Parigi è il romanzo che descrive, come fosse il quadro di una immane natura morta, il mercato delle Halles: «una macchina moderna, smisurata, una specie di macchina a vapore, di caldaia destinata alla digestione di un popolo; un gigantesco ventre di metallo, inchiavardato, saldato, fatto di legno, vetro e ferro, che funziona con il calore del riscaldamento, lo stordimento e l’agitazione furiosa delle strade...».

Romanzo visivo, olfattivo e tattile che mette in scena la coreografia dell’eterna lotta tra ricchezza e povertà, logica dell’interesse e ideali sociali, arrivismo piccolo borghese e illusione rivoluzionaria. Una guerra da cui tutti usciranno sconfitti.

Be prepared for a trip to a farmers' market. Beautifully descriptive.

Folle, elle décide de se lancer dans la saga des Rougon-Macquart. Et quoi de mieux que pour démarrer cette aventure que de me plonger dans le Ventre de Paris ?

Pourquoi entrer dans cet univers en débutant par ce livre, probablement parce qu’il cristallise ce que j’aime le plus dans la ville de Paris : son paradoxe grossier entre l’opulence de la nourriture, de la richesse, du confort petit bourgeois, et sa tension permanente de basculer dans la crasse, l’horreur, le crime, la révolution. Ce roman marche sur la corde raide tout son long, faisant osciller Florent durant des semaines, le piégeant petit à petit dans l’inévitable prison dorée ou de fer qui l’attend.

Les batailles rangées entre commerçant des Halles étaient un énorme plaisir à lire ; au delà de l’écriture fine et contemplative du trop pleins de nourritures, il y’a un vrai tour de force de Zola pour nous dépeindre des personnages très ancré dans leur réalité, effrayé par l’être et le paraître, les commérages et les dérapages, s’obligeant à l’immobilisme politique total pour garder leur réputation et leur bourse intactes.

Bref j’ai adoré, c’est une énorme bonne surprise pour moi, et je sens que j’ai exploré que la surface de toutes les réflexions intemporelles que Zola instille dans son roman à travers les personnages et les actes. C’est brillant. A découvrir le ventre très vite ou trop plein !

Introduction
Translator's Note
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of Émile Zola

--The Belly of Paris

Explanatory Notes

4.5 stars

Review to come

How do I begin to describe the feelings this book left me…. *BURP*
I felt as though I gorged myself on 100 pounds of chocolate bacon and swallowed it down with 10 gallons of SICKLY sweet wine and afterwards swallowed an entire Tiramisu cake in one bite. It left me feeling fully satiated and yet I am still starving to discover more about the mysterious world of Old Paris.
I had to work at finishing this novel, as I felt my belly was full to the brim of descriptions of food and yet I couldn’t peel myself away anyhow. You know when you continue to eat after you are full because the meal tastes so good? This is what will occur here.
I found myself constantly pausing to scour the internet for recipes to these Parisian foods. I ended up discovering and growing fond of Blood sausage.
This story lacks any real action, this is more of a character development, with overly lush descriptions of FOOD, of course, and also a beautiful city and the people who worked at the market.
You felt starving in the beginning, to the effect that it lead you to feel dizzy.
There was a small growing plot that was kind of an undertone and not the primary focus… I felt I was too distracted by descriptions to care about a plot.
You felt a strong loathing for the FAT characters, and routed for the skinny underground folks to gain any sort of prosperity- although they seemed to despise it anyhow.
There was a beautiful story of 2 “street-children” that grew up together that really tugged at my heartstrings. They made the underground world of the poor underprivileged seem almost mystical and free from all constraints, yet you wanted to take them both under your wing and raise them proper.

I left off a star because I grew a bit frustrated and bored there in the middle, desiring some sort of strong action or plot… I will definitely not re-read this, as my belly is full to the brim and the smell of food now disgusts me… LOL
However!! I have now grown quite fond of the writer and will read more of his works-
“Nana” is next on my list.

Una vertigine sensoriale in cui sprofondare e perdersi, inebriati dal gusto, dai sapori, dai colori, dai profumi, dal tanfo, dal marciume, dall'olezzo.
Una nuvola sensoriale e terribilmente materiale che aleggia sui mercati generali (les Halles) e ammorba l'atmosfera della città. Impregna le vicende umane e i sentimenti, e vince sui più deboli. La battaglia ingaggiata tra i Grassi e i Magri è ben rappresentata dalla opulenta conservatrice Lisa e dal magrissimo rivoluzionario per caso Florent.
Zola riesce a tenere avvinti per 300 pagine di cui la metà di descrizione di cibo, alimenti, materie prime vive morte o nella terra di mezzo (cioè nei sotterranei, gironi infernali di allevamenti intensivi e uccisioni di massa che avrebbero qualcosa da insegnare anche agli allevatori di polli in batteria dei nostri giorni).
Descrizioni meravigliose, con tre passaggi che superano tutti gli altri: Quenu che prepara il sanguinaccio, la poesia della frutta e la bottega dei formaggi.
Le restanti pagine sono destinate a descrivere nel più puro stile verista* – con fiero distacco dei sentimenti e col tono più oggettivo possibile – le vicissitudini umane e sentimentali del nostro eroe. Che coinvolgono belle pescivendole (la Normanna si staglia sul banco del pesce come la polena di una nave, bellicosa e bellissima) e fascinose salumiere (Lisa è abbagliante con il candidissimo e inamidato biancore dei suoi colletti e polsini).
A ripensare a quel che hanno tirato giù (la struttura in vetro e acciaio rispecchiava l'indomita fede nella Ragione e nel Mercato) per farci quel mostro senz'anima dell'attuale Les Halles pieno di negozi di catene uguali-in-tutto-il-mondo vien da piangere, ma perlomeno la chiesa di Saint Eustache c'è ancora e Rue Montorgueil ricorda vagamente Rue Rambuteau (la gentrificazione a Parigi assume toni molto francesi e non è ancora arrivata a colpire a morte quel certo esprit che rende i camerieri parigini i più odiosi del mondo).

4.5

Do not look for justice in a Zola novel.

The Belly of Paris (Le Ventre de Paris), the third novel in Émile Zola's twenty-volume series of Les Rougon-Macquart is a criticism leveled at the fat, well fed, self-satisfied bourgeois class.
The setting is Les Halles of Paris and the story takes place over one year from 1858 to 1859.

Ein immersives Leseerlebnis, in dem der Schauplatz selbst zum lebhaftesten Charakter wird: die „Hallen“, der zentrale Großmarkt in der Pariser Innenstadt. Die lebendige, impressionistisch-bildreiche Schilderung der Stände und des Marktgeschehens bildet den Kern des Romans. Zola erzählt so plastisch, dass man regelrecht eingesogen wird von der Atmosphäre. Gleichzeitig werden die verschiedenen Abteilungen symbolisch aufgeladen: Man streitet auf dem Fischmarkt, liebt sich beim Federvieh, intrigiert bei Butter und Käse, opfert seine Nächsten bei Fleisch- und Wurstwaren, und die Erotik eines Obststandes ist mir in dieser Weise auch noch nie bewusst gemacht worden. Dahinter droht die eigentliche Romanhandlung über weite Strecken fast zu verschwinden. Florent, Revolutionär von 1848, ist aus der Verbannung geflohen und kehrt zu seinem Bruder zurück, der aufgrund der Erbschaft des Onkels, deren eine Hälfte dem totgeglaubten Florent zustand, gemeinsam mit seiner Frau eine Metzgerei aufgebaut hat. Als Erzähler ist Zola zu geschickt, um den hier naheliegenden Konflikt sofort auszuschlachten. Die Konfliktlinien sind andere, komplexere: zwischen Zugehörigkeit und Außenseitertum, selbstzufriedener Saturiertheit und politischem Veränderungsfuror, den „Fetten“ und „Mageren“, wie es die Cicerone-Figur, der Maler Claude, auf den Punkt bringt. Allein Florents Präsenz sorgt für Unruhe, weniger durch die unterschwellige Drohung, er könnte fordern, was ihm zusteht (dann wäre man ihn wenigstens los), als vielmehr durch die Fragen, Gerüchte, Spekulationen, die sein plötzliches Erscheinen innerhalb der Marktgesellschaft auslösen. Bemerkenswert ist in diesem Zusammenhang, dass diese Welt eine weiblich dominierte ist: Es sind die Frauen, die Entscheidungen treffen, die Konflikte vorantreiben, die weniger von Macht- und Besitzansprüchen getrieben sind (wie die Welt der Hochfinanz im Nachfolger innerhalb des Rougon-Macquart-Zyklus, „Das Geld“) als vielmehr von dem Streben nach Aufrechterhaltung der hergebrachten Ordnung, Konformität (ironisch, dass Florent in seiner Tätigkeit als Marktaufseher, die er widerwillig ausübt, derjenige ist, der eigentlich für Ordnung sorgen soll) und dem Wohlergehen der Familie. In den kleingeistigen Marktleuten karikiert Zola den selbstzufriedenen, kleinbürgerlichen Konservatismus des Zweiten Kaiserreichs, das Florent als Kritiker der politischen Verhältnisse mit umstürzlerischen Ambitionen antagonisiert.

I honestly liked it way more than I expected.
I was rooting for Florent even though my professor already spoiled the end during classes hahahah
The behaviour of the entire Halles was truly despicable, but from one point of view also understandable.