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Following a pilgrimage to the holy city of Lourdes, Abbé Froment finds himself renewed in his purpose as a man of God and of his most vulnerable people. Inspired to change the Church, he writes a book on socialistic Catholicism and faces punishment from Vatican officials.
Rome is the second novel in
The Three Cities Trilogy by Émile Zola.
About the author
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.
Summary
Rome (1896) is a novel by French author Émile Zola. Rome is the second installment in Zola’s celebrated Three Cities Trilogy. Published toward the end of Zola’s career, the trilogy is an ambitious, sweeping study of one man’s struggle with faith in political, religious, and social life. Following his protagonist Abbé Pierre Froment, Zola provides a striking portrait of the soul of modern man in crisis with itself and with an ever-changing world. In Rome, Abbé Froment—inspired by his pilgrimage to the holy city of Lourdes—writes a book on socialistic Catholicism aimed at reforming the Church in order to benefit its most vulnerable subjects. Facing censure from Vatican officials, he travels to the heart of the Catholic world, where he hopes to gain an audience with the Pope in order to vindicate himself. Filled with hope, and perhaps more than a little naïve, Froment believes he can inspire radical institutional changes for the Church. When he gets to Rome, however, he finds himself waiting endlessly for his chance to arrive. As days turn into weeks, and weeks turn to months, Pierre grows tired of the city’s ancient beauty, which never fails to remind him of his fate as a member of an institution brought low by its commitment to tradition. Soon, he is faced with a choice—to continue to hope for change, or to change his own, small life. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Émile Zola’s Rome is a classic work of French literature reimagined for modern readers.
