ABBE MOURET'S TRANSGRESSION

BY

EMILE ZOLA


Edited with an Introduction by
Ernest Alfred Vizetelly



INTRODUCTION

'LA FAUTE DE L'ABBE MOURET' was, with respect to the date of
publication, the fourth volume of M. Zola's 'Rougon-Macquart' series;
but in the amended and final scheme of that great literary undertaking,
it occupies the ninth place. It proceeds from the sixth volume of the
series, 'The Conquest of Plassans;' which is followed by the two works
that deal with the career of Octave Mouret, Abbe Serge Mouret's elder
brother. In 'The Conquest of Plassans,' Serge and his half-witted
sister, Desiree, are seen in childhood at their home in Plassans, which
is wrecked by the doings of a certain Abbe Faujas and his relatives.
Serge Mouret grows up, is called by an instinctive vocation to the
priesthood, and becomes parish priest of Les Artaud, a well-nigh pagan
hamlet in one of those bare, burning stretches of country with which
Provence abounds. And here it is that 'La Faute de l'Abbe Mouret' opens
in the old ruinous church, perched upon a hillock in full view of the
squalid village, the arid fields, and the great belts of rock which shut
in the landscape all around.