The Project Gutenberg EBook of Abbe Mouret's Transgression, by Emile Zola

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Title: Abbe Mouret's Transgression
La Faute De L'abbe Mouret

Author: Emile Zola

Editor: Ernest Alfred Vizetelly

Release Date: November 28, 2004 [EBook #14200]
Posting Date: May 29, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ABBE MOURET'S TRANSGRESSION ***

Produced by Dagny; and David Widger

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.

There are two elements in this remarkable story, which, from the
standpoint of literary style, has never been excelled by anything that
M. Zola has since written; and one may glance at it therefore from two
points of view. Taking it under its sociological and religious aspect,
it will be found to be an indirect indictment of the celibacy of the
priesthood; that celibacy, contrary to Nature's fundamental law, which
assuredly has largely influenced the destinies of the Roman Catholic
Church. To that celibacy, and to all the evils that