num_pages: 318
description: The Kill (La Curée) is the second volume in Zola's great cycle of twenty novels, Les Rougon-Macquart, and the first to establish Paris - the capital of modernity - as the centre of Zola's narrative world. Conceived as a representation of the uncontrollable 'appetites' unleashed by the Second Empire (1852-70) and the transformation of the city by Baron Haussmann, the novel combines into a single, powerful vision the twin themes of lust for money and lust for pleasure. The all-pervading promiscuity of the new Paris is reflected in the dissolute and frenetic lives of an unscrupulous property speculator, Saccard, his neurotic wife Renée, and her dandified lover, Saccard's son Maxime.
language: English
title: The Kill
titlecomplete: The Kill
characters: Madame Teissière, Countess Vanska, Duchess of Sternich, Laure de Aurigny, Duchess de Rozan, Madame Daste, Monsieur de Saffré, Madame Michelin, Baron Gouraud, Monsieur Béraud du Châtel, Count de Chibray, Monsieur Haffner, Pasha Selim, Madame de Lauwerens, Madame de Guende, Baroness of Meinhold
genres: Literature, Classics, Novels, 19th Century, France, Roman, Historical Fiction, French Literature, Fiction, Classic Literature
ratings_count: 5089
series: Les Rougon-Macquart
publisher: Oxford University Press