The 18th Classics Club Spin number is 9 and that means that I’ll be reading The Kill by Emile Zola before the 31st of August.
I’m very happy about this as apart from anything else my copy of The Kill only has 271 pages, very short for Zola I think, it looks like it’ll be a great read too.
This book is part of Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series and the blurb on the back says:
A great wave of redevelopment is bursting over Paris when Aristide Rougon arrives from the provinces in 1852. Fortunes are being made and lost by those with the nerve to speculate and to swindle on a grand scale. To some, Paris is disappearing in a cloud of plaster dust: All Aristide can see is a shower of gold.
I’m really looking forward to reading it now.
The cover of my copy shows a detail from the painting Foggy day near Madeleine by Jean Beraud.
That sounds like a good result, especially as it’s quite a short book. I have only read two Zola novels – The Ladies’ Paradise and Therese Raquin – but I enjoyed both and have been meaning to read more.
Helen,
I’ve read those one too but I think that Germinal is my favourite, it’s a bit of a doorstop though.
I have never read Emile Zola. Another French writer I’ve missed. But it seems you have a great pick for this month, which should give you time for other events, depending on all kinds of weather. I hope your July weather holds on through August, or even September. Wouldn’t your garden like that?
Judith,
It’s hot again now, we did have a lot of rain at the weekend though. I think that the hot weather really doesn’t suit quite a lot of plants, the roses were better last year with all the rain (not that I’m complaining) and I live in hope of a second flush of blooms in a few weeks.
I think you would enjoy Zola. There are plenty of events going on here, apart for the Edinburgh Festival, there’s the very busy Pittenweem Art Festival this coming week too.