Part of Emile Zola’s multigenerational Rougon-Macquart saga, The Belly of Paris is the story of Florent Quenu, a wrongly accused man who escapes imprisonment on Devil’s Island. Returning to his native Paris, Florent finds a city he barely recognizes, with its working classes displaced to make way for broad boulevards and bourgeois flats. Living with his brother’s family in the newly rebuilt Les Halles market, Florent is soon caught up in a dangerous maelstrom of food and politics. Amid intrigue among the market’s sellers–the fishmonger, the charcutière, the fruit girl, and the cheese vendor–and the glorious culinary bounty of their labors, we see the dramatic difference between “fat and thin” (the rich and the poor) and how the widening gulf between them strains a city to the breaking point. Translated and with an Introduction by the celebrated historian and food writer Mark Kurlansky, The Belly of Paris offers fascinating perspectives on the French capital during the Second Empire–and, of course, tantalizing descriptions of its sumptuous repasts.
The Belly of Paris, Émile Zola
Řekl bych, že ta kniha je takový "Zola starter pack". 250 stránek je spíš jednohubka vykreslující pařížskou tržnici. Všechno na Zolu typické tam je, ale žádná velká tragédie se neodehraje. Skoro nikdo neumře a jediný, kdo nakonec skočí blbě jsou socialisté a tak to má být. Navíc Eva Outratová (překladatelka) píše fakt sexy jazykem.
