Lrsquo;Autrice rivive alcuni percorsi della sua vita. La gioia della maternitagrave; e il vivere nel ricordo dei suoi cari e del suo amore perduto; cominciando dalla sua adolescenza piena di avvenimenti; brutti e belli; interrotta da una vita coniugale molto sofferta.Un inno alla vita; riflettendo sullrsquo;importanza della libertagrave;; per sciogliere quelle catene che tengono prigionieri i nostri ideali e le nostre scelte.
2016-10-05 2016-10-05File Name: B01M1NGS0D
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A puzzling novelBy Barbara VincentWhy on earth did Zola write Le Reve. and how does it fit into the Rougon-Macquart series? Im afraid I dont have answers to these questions. but perhaps when Ive finished the series. I willLe Reve is such a departure from the series. which Im attempting to read in chronological order of the events of the series. Le Reve is only very tangentially related to the events in the series so far. The main character in the story. a young woman living in a cathedral town north of Paris. is the illegitimate daughter of Sidonie Rougon. the owner of the piano and lace shop and professional meddler featured in La Curee and LArgent. She is also the sister of Saccard. the swindler who is the main character in those two novels. particularly in LArgent.Angelique is an orphan who was adopted by the Huberts. a childless couple who embroider sacred objects. Angelique learns their trade but is hampered by an extreme temper no doubt caused by the years of deprivation and abuse in her past when she was passed from institution to foster families.The main thrust of the story is a romance between Angelique and Felicien. the son of the local Monseigneur. It has been Angeliques dream to be carried off by a handsome prince. Naturally. reality and politics interfere. as Felicien is the scion of a noble and wealthy family. and Angelique is at best from the artisan class and at worst a bastard of unknown origin.I had very mixed feelings about this book; I found Angeliques vacillations between her natural passion and temper and her wish to be like Saint Agnes hard to swallow. It made me feel as if Zola knew very little about what is really in young womens minds. I have to admit that I dont know how different young women of the 19th century are from young women of my day. but Angelique didnt ring true to me.Angeliques response to being deprived of the love of her life rang equally hollow. I wont reveal it here. as it would spoil some of the interest of the book.The Huberts rang much truer to me. as being ordinary people burdened with a complicated past and having a complicated response to it. Once more. though. the struggle between virtue and vice is a little forced in my mind. It seems possible that people back in the day would believe that disobeying a parent would result in infertility. but part of me remained sceptical.It was a relief to have characters in the forefront who are trying to do their best to live a decent life and made a refreshing change from La Curee and LArgent. but the book left me puzzled.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A Unicorn of a Different ColorBy GioMost readers in France and other Catholic-majority nations in the 19th C would have been acquainted with the Legenda Aurea. the "Golden Legend". the compendium of the lives of saints that had been universally popular since the Middle Ages. The Legends are rich in fantasy. like all fairy tales replete with both the gruesome and the delightful. La Reve (The Dream) is intentionally such a tale of implausible enchantment. a fairy tale novella inserted into the often didactic naturalism of Emile Zolas 20-volume Rougon-Macquart chronicle of society during the Second Empire. The central character. Angelique. springs straight from the pages of the Golden Legend. which in fact she reads avidly and upon which she models the fantasies that control her behavior. Much of the imagery in La Reve. and even some of the odd archaic syntax. comes from hagiography. Zola always excels at description. at scene setting. and in this book he gives his descriptive powers free rein to visualize the cathedral and the cathedral community of Beaumont: the Gothic sculpture. the picturesque old houses and gardens. the heirloom furniture. the embroidered liturgical garments and the workshop where the adopted waif Angelique practices the delicate artisanry of embroidering the chasubles and stolls of her religion of spiritual splendor. Zola is completely in control of his style here. completely restrained from any urge to interpret or extrapolate; this is indeed a golden dream of romance. And yet. somewhere toward the middle of this tale of enchanting innocence. ones heart begins to palpitate. one starts to perceive a looming tragedy. a bittersweet denouement. as if too much happiness cannot be other than a dream even in the enchanted precincts of a cathedral garden.Angelique is an abandoned child. a runaway from an abusive foster home. She is found nearly frozen to death on the porch of the cathedral by the Huberts. a childless couple who take her in and eventually adopt her. The Huberts are the heirs of generations of artisanry in the making of liturgical garments and banners. which they teach the girl. Nothing could more vividly symbolize the antique simplicity and stability of pre-modern traditional culture than such an anonymous art. The girl grows from a wildly erratic. temperamental waif into a beautiful maiden. gifted at her art but completely sheltered from contemporary reality. She lives in the Huberts ancient dwelling. nestled between the buttresses of the cathedral. isolated even from the bustling commercial lower town of Beaumont. She dreams of a prince charming -- naturally. in the way of fairy tales. one WILL appear -- and of her own transcendence of her shameful birth as a princess of bliss. She also dreams of sainthood. of martyrdom. of the renunciation of worldly happiness achieved by her idolized Saint Agnes. Two such dreams must inevitably clash.Theres almost nothing explicit in this novel of Zolas comprehensive theories of heredity and its import in human character. If one happened to read La Reve alone. without any exposure to the rest of Zolas writings. without the context of the whole Rougon-Macquart saga. one might take it to be a quaint. melodramatic. almost operatic love story. But Angelique carries with her a secret that she herself doesnt know. At the time of her adoption. father Hubert goes to Paris to uncover the identity of her birth mother. What he learns is the only linkage of this novella with the other Rougon-Macquart books. and he never reveals his discovery to Angelique or even to his wife. The girl is the illegitimate daughter. given up at birth. of Sidonie Rougon. the daughter of the opportunistic scoundrel Pierre Rougon who founded the wealth of the Rougons. In other words. Angelique could have been a child of prosperity. in Paris. the niece of a powerful cabinet minister. rather than a humble village maiden. There is a huge irony implicit in this charming love story. which only readers of the whole saga will perceive. The question of Angeliques hereditary nature isnt asked in so many words. but her capacity for emotional excess MUST be. for Zola. part of her Rougon inheritance. Zolas subtle irony extends to his portrayal of the provincial values of the cathedral town of Beaumont. a fast-vanishing enclave of the ancien regime of religious certainty. Those values are so pure. so sublime ... and for the lovers in this tale. so cruel and sterile. The generous integrity of traditional France. even if it survives in rural pockets. is "the dream" in the title of this book.
