Reviews

The Beast Within by Émile Zola

bina_18's review against another edition

4.0

The Coldroom

portlandcat's review against another edition

3.0

My French isn’t that great, so I thought that the title said “Stupid Human” when I picked it up. This is, coincidentally, my cat’s nickname for me.

burritapal_1's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Spoiler

The character Aunt Phasie: " you can go on inventing better machines till the cows come home. It won't change a thing. In the end we're at the mercy of beasts."

(As we stand at the perhaps brink of annihilation, as the U.S. enables Israel's genocide and wiping out of Palestine, and Iran's backing of Hamas, this seems ever more true.)

The Beast Within is the 17th in the 20 novels which make up the series les Rougon-Macquart by Emile Zola.

From the introduction:

"... indeed it is as powerful and dramatic a narrative as any of the other novels in the series. It tells a story of sexual abuse, adultery, murder and suicide. This somber catalog of crime and Misfortune is set against a background of deeply embedded political corruption which ensures that the voice of justice is silenced, that wickedness goes undetected and that violence is allowed to breed violence...."

Near the beginning of the book we have the author telling us a bit about Séverine (and Grandmorin) by having her reflect on her childhood while she's sitting at the table eating with her husband Roubaud. They are in Madame Victoire's room in Rouen:

"she had never known her mother, and was just 13 when her father, Aubry, the gardener, died; and it was roundabout then that the President, who had lost his wife several years earlier, had taken her under his wing. He brought her up along with his own daughter, Berthe. The two girls were placed under the tutelage of Grandmorin's sister, Madame Bonnehon, who had been married to a factory owner but who was, like Grandmorin, also widowed, and now owned the Château. Berthe was 2 years older than Séverine and she had married 6 months after her. Her husband was a Monsieur de Lachesnaye, a judge in the Rouen law courts, a sour-faced, sickly-looking little man. Grandmorinn had remained President of the Rouen law courts, in his native Normandy, up until only a year ago, when he retired, after a long and distinguished career. He was born in 1804, was appointed as Deputy public prosecutor at Digne after the 1830 Revolution and went on to hold similar posts at Fontainebleau and in Paris. He rose to become Chief public prosecutor at Troye's, Advocate General at Rennes's, and eventually the presiding judge at Rouen... "

At the time of this same luncheon, Séverine confesses to Roubaud that Grandmorin had been grooming her when she was a teenager, and had sex with her when she was 16. He gets a raging wrath towards Grandmorin but also towards Séverine, and beats the shit out of her. At this time I hated the hell out of the character of Roubaud.

Jack's lampier, a locomotive driver, is the third son of the characters in the previous book called "The Drinking Den." His father was a ne'er-do-well bum who would ingratiate his way into families and turn them Topsy-turvy, making sex with the wife, and using up all of their money. As Zola wants to show his readers in his Rougon-Macquart series, these loathsome characteristics in humans can be passed down hereditarily, and made worse by their environment. Jacques Lantierier is the human who has a "beast within."

We meet his Aunt Phasie (who is his godmother) when he visits her during a layover, where she lives near the railroad tracks in between Rouen and Le Havre. She was a formerly handsome, older woman, in robust health, but when he visits her she's a mere shadow of her former self. She tells Jacques that her husband Misard is poisoning her:

" Jacques, who used to pull his Godmother's leg about the many inspectors whose Hearts she had broken, couldn't help smiling. 

'perhaps he's jealous,' he said. 

Phasie Shrugged her shoulders as if she felt sorry for him, but she couldn't prevent a mischievous little twinkle suddenly appearing in her poor, lifeless eyes. 

'him, jealous! He doesn't know the meaning of the word! So long as he wasn't out of pocket, he couldn't care a fig what I got up to.'

Again she started to shake. 

'that side of things never bothered him,' she said. 'All he cares about is money. What's really upset him is that I won't give him the Thousand francs that father left me last year. It's brought bad luck, just like he said it would. It's made me ill. I've been ill ever since. Ever since then.'

Jacques sensed what she was trying to tell him, but assumed it was her illness that made her entertain such dark thoughts. He attempted to reassure her. But she kept shaking her head and would not be persuaded otherwise. Eventually Jacques said, 'look, there's a simple answer. If you want him to stop bothering you, give him the money.'

With an extraordinary effort she dragged herself to her feet, suddenly transformed, exclaiming furiously: 

'give him my money! Never! I'd rather die! I've hidden it! No one will ever find it! Never! Not even if they turn the house upside down! I tell you, he's been looking everywhere, hoping to lay his greedy hands on it! I've heard him in the night, tapping on the walls. Well, he can go on looking for all he's worth. It makes me laugh to see him poking around all over the house. We shall see who dies first, him or me! I'm careful now. I don't eat a thing if he's been anywhere near it. Even if I was the first to die, he still wouldn't get the money. I'd rather see it buried.' "

That same night, Jacques goes roaming around the countryside near Aunt Phasie's house by the railroad tracks. He comes across his cousin Flore, an intriguing character, a beautiful strong young woman, stronger than any man thereabouts, and absolutely uninterested in any man but her cousin Jacques. But Jacques has a secret: he fears the "Beast within." When he nearly tears off his cousin's clothes and has sex with her, he suddenly gets up and runs away, trying to run away from himself. 

When he's on a hillside embankment overlooking the railroad tracks, the express from Rouen to Le Havre Roars by, and in the first car, he sees a murder taking place, Grandmorin 's, by Roubaud's hand. 

Returning down the tracks, he comes across the body: he runs to find Misard, and tells him to run and get inspectors and help: 

"Jacques was left on his own. he stood looking at the lifeless body slumped on the ground in front of him. He could still not see it clearly; the light from the lamp was too dim. His thoughts were racing inside his head; the excitement that had made him rush headlong to the spot and the horrible Fascination that now held him fixed there had resulted in the sudden, acute realization, sensed in every fiber of his body, that the man he had seen in the train, the man who was holding a knife, had dared to do the deed! He had followed his desire to its end! He had killed! If only he were not a coward! If only he could satisfy his desire! If only he could kill! For 10 years he had been tortured by the desire to kill. His mind was in turmoil; he despised himself and he admired the man who had committed this murder. Above all he felt the need to look at the body in front of him, an insatiable desire to Feast his eyes on this tattered shred of human life, on the broken puppet, the limp rag that, before the knife had struck, had been a living creature. What he had merely dreamed of that man had actually done, and there was the body in front of him. If he killed, the body would be like that, there, on the ground. His heart was beating fit to burst. At the sight of this tragic corpse his craving to kill grew more intense, like lust that is denied gratification. He took a step nearer, like a nervous child trying to overcome its fear. Yes! He would do it! When the time came, he would do it!"

One of Zola's intentions in this book is to show the corruptness and nepotism prevalent in the French courts. When the case of Grandmorin's death is being investigated, the examining magistrate, Monsieur Denizet, weighs up what could happen if the Roubauds are put on trial, instead of the man named Cabuche for Grandmorin's death.

Cabuche was a poor Quarry worker, who had been in love with Flore's sister Louisette, who had been beaten so badly by Grandmorin (for whom she was a domestic servant), for turning away his advances, that she had died after running to her friend Cabuche's house.

Now Monsieur Denizet and the Secretary General Monsieur Camy-Lamotte are using Cabuche's life as a means to an end: 

" 'in fact,' He concluded, seeing that Monsieur Camy-Lamotte didn't seem in the least surprised by what he had said, 'we are likely to end up with some pretty sordid business on our hands.'

He was trying to work out what would happen if, instead of Cabuche, it was the Roubauds who were put on trial. One thing was certain; Roubaud would tell everything - how his wife had also been violated when she was a young girl, the subsequent adultery, the jealous Rage which had driven him to commit murder. Moreover, it would no longer be the trial of a domestic servant and a criminal who had already served time [Cabuche had beento prison]; Rouwas respectably employed and he was married, to a very attractive woman. People would start asking all sorts of questions about middle-class morality and the sort of people that the railway companies chose to employ. What was more, with a men like President Grandmorin, you never knew what might come to light. How many other unforeseen scandals would they run into? No, the Roubauds might well be guilty, but to put them on trial would be a very messy affair. Monsieur Camy-Lamotte had decided; they must avoid proceeding against the Roubauds at all costs. If anyone was to be prosecuted, he tended to think it should be Cabuche, even though he was innocent."

Grrrr🤬

In a confession by Séverine to her lover Jacques, we find out what happened at the scene of President Grandmorin's death:

" '.... he looked at me and must have read my thoughts. Suddenly he threw himself at the President, who had turned toward the window, and grabbed him by the shoulders. The President didn't know what was happening. He instinctively shook himself free and reached out to pull the communication cord, which was just above his head. He got his hand to it, but Roubaud pulled him back and flung him onto the seat, with such force that he was bent double. His mouth was wide open, screaming in Terror and amazement, but his cries were drowned by the noise of the train. I could hear my husband's voice, hissing with rage and shouting at him repeatedly: 'you swine! You swine! You swine!' Suddenly the noise stopped; we were out of the tunnel and in the open Countryside with dark trees rushing past the window... I had remained where I was, rigid, pressing myself against the upholstery, trying to keep as far away as possible. How long did the struggle last? Probably no more than a few seconds, but it seemed to me that it would never end, that all the passengers in the train were listening to the shouts and that the trees were watching us. My husband had his knife open but he couldn't get near the President. Grandmorin kept kicking him away, and the movement of the train made him lose his balance; he almost fell over. The train was traveling very fast; I heard it whistle and it approached the level crossing at La Croix-de-Maufras... that was when I threw myself over his legs to stop him struggling. I can't remember now how I did it; I just fell on him like a bundle, pinning his legs down with all my weight so that he couldn't move them. I couldn't see a thing, but I felt it happen; the knife being thrust into his throat, the body rising in agony, and his three dying gasps, like a broken clock unwinding. I can still feel that final shudder in my bones!' " 

afterwards, Séverine and Roubaud climb outside the carriage door, and manage to make their way back to their original Carriage by holding on to a handle outside the train and a Ledge that runs outside the cars. Séverine was terrified by it, Sure that at any moment she would fall and be sliced to ribbons on the tracks.

Aunt Phasie finally dies at 9:00 on the Thursday evening. Misard her husband had tried to close her eyes but they remained stubbornly open. Her neck was stiff and her head was tilted slightly over one shoulder like she was looking around the room and her lips were drawn back in what looked like a sardonic smile.

Misard had sent Flore out of the way to Doinville to report the death of Grandmorin. We find out how more Misard has been poisoning her:

" ....He had destroyed her. She had been a fine, handsome, healthy woman, and he eaten her life away, as woodworm eats away oak! There she lay - on her back, finished, reduced to nothing! And he was still alive! A thought suddenly occurred to him; he knelt down and took a pan from under the bed containing some bran-water that had been prepared as an enema. Ever since she had begun to suspect he was trying to kill her, Misard had been putting the rat poison into her enemas rather than mixing it with the salt. This was something that had never occurred to her; she should have had more sense. She had taken the poison without knowing it, and this time it had finished her off. Having emptied the pan outside, he came back and mopped down the bedroom floor to remove the stains. Why has she been so stubborn? She had thought she could outwit him! Well, serve her right! When husband and wife are secretly trying to see each other into the grave, you need to keep your eyes open. He chuckled to himself. It amused him to think of her unknowingly inbibing poison through her bottom while being so careful to watch what went into her mouth... "

Grrrr 😡

Flore is miserably jealous of Séverine. Her unrequited love for Jacques has messed with her already unbalanced mind, and she conceives an idea to kill the two of them on their way to what she knows is a love tryst in Rouen. 

This pissed me off so much because she purposely killed horses in doing this. I don't care about the fucking human characters in this book getting killed on the railway accident, but the innocent beautiful horses who were carrying a load of rocks driven by Cabuche? 

Flore assured that the horses stayed with the wagon of rocks stuck on the railroad tracks, while she sent Cabuche and with Misard off to see her dead mother Aunt Phasie. 

in this part, is one of the parts where we see La Lison, Jacques' locomotive, being referred to as if she's a being that's alive:

".. since the blizzard, she hadn't steamed as well and was not as quick off the mark; like a woman who had caught cold on her chest and had suddenly aged. She let out Steam and shuddered as Jacques applied the brakes. But there was no stopping her; she was carried forward under the powerful impetus of her own weight. Pecqueux [the fireman], in sheer terror, leaped from the footplate. Jacques stood stiffly at the controls, his right hand on the reversing wheel and the other, without him realizing it, still pulling at the whistle, waiting for the worst. La Lison, in a cloud of steam and smoke, her whistle still screaming wildly, crashed into the wagon with the full weight of the 13 carriages she Drew behind her.

20 M away, standing beside the track, transfixed with horror, Misard and Cabuche, their arms in the air, and Flore, her eyes starting from her head, watched the catastrophe unfold. They saw the train being flung upwards, seven carriages piling on top of each other and then, with a sickening crash, falling back into a twisted massive wreckage. The three leading carriages were reduced to nothing. Four others lay in a tangled heap of torn-off roofs, broken wheels, Carriage doors, couplings, buffers and pieces of broken glass. They had heard the locomotive crash into the stones, a dull crunching sound followed by a scream of agony. La Lison was completely crushed and had been thrown to the left on top of the wagon. The stones had been split apart and filled the air with the cloud of splinters as if they had been blasted from a quarry. Of the five horses, four had been knocked off their feet, dragged along the ground and killed outright. The rest of the train, a further six carriages, was still intact and had come to a stop without even leaving the rails. 

People began to shout. There were calls for help, which tailed off into inarticulate cries of pain. 

'Help me! Save me! Oh god, I'm dying! Help! Help!'

there was a confusion of sounds and it was impossible to see. La Lison had fallen over onto her back, with her Underside to the air. Steam came gushing from open valves and broken pipes with a fierce hiss, like the dying gasps of an angry giant. Dense clouds of white Vapor swirled across the ground. Burning coal spilled from the firebox, like blood pouring from her belly, filling the air with a pall of black smoke. The force of the impact had buried her chimney in the ground; the chassis was broken where it had taken the shock, and both side frames were bent. She lay with her wheels in the air, like a monstrous steed that has been gored by some Savage beast, displaying her Twisted coupling rods, her broken cylinders, and her shattered piston rods and valve gear to the sky, like a hideous gaping wound through which her life ebbed away with groans of anger and despair. Beside her lay the horse that had not been killed; its two front legs had been ripped off and, like her, its innards were spilling out through an open gash in its belly. It was straining its head forward, straight and rigid, in a hideous contortion of pain; they could see it gasping and screaming pitifully, but above the terrible noise that came from the dying locomotive, no sound reached their ears."

Grrrrr😠

More anthropomorphizing of La Lison while Jacques lay stunned and injured by the tracks: 

"Jacques eventually opened his eyes. He looked vaguely at each of them in turn, without seeming to recognize them. They meant nothing to him. Then, a few meters away, he caught side of the dying locomotive. He was startled. He gazed at her steadily, his eyes flickering as the emotion welled up inside him. He recognized La Lison only too well. Everything came back to him - the two stones across the track, the terrible impact, the shudder that ran through the two of them. He might recover, but she would surely die. He couldn't blame her for being slow to respond; she hadn't been herself since they were caught in the blizzard. If she was no longer quite as agile, it wasn't her fault; old age came to everyone, tiring the limbs and stiffening the joints. Seeing her lying there mortally wounded and about to expire, he was overcome with grief and willingly forgave her. She had only a few more minutes to live. She was already growing cold. The coal from her Firebox fell to the ground as ash. The steam that had gushed so fiercely from her open flanks now leaked from her sides with a pathetic, whimpering sound, like a child crying. She lay on her back in a pool of black sludge, her gleaming Metal-Work spattered with dirt and grease; it was like the tragic end of a magnificent horse, accidentally knocked down in the street. For a while, as she lay there with her belly ripped open, they had watched the final throes of her stricken body - the Pistons still beating like twin hearts, steam pulsing through her cylinders like blood in her the veins. But now the Piston rods gave only a spasmodic jerk, like two arms twitching involuntarily, in a last defiant assertion of life. Her soul was ebbing away, along with the power that had kept her alive - the store of living breath, which even now continued to seep from her. The mighty creature grew calmer, sank gradually into a gentle sleep and felt silent. She was dead...."

There's another really cool part where Jackson pick you kill each other while they're driving their newly-assigned locomotive. But, I'm out of room.

 i have a beef with this novel: we never find out where Aunt Phasie hid her 1,000 Francs, and we don't know what happened with The Runaway locomotive in the end of the book.

allxkn's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

ileniazodiaco's review against another edition

3.0

Analisi e commento --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8lBxlcJGg0&t=3553s

anthonykravtschuk's review

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

comfortfromwithin's review

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

antoine3175's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

ozielbispo's review against another edition

4.0

"A Besta Humana" de Émile Zola é um livro incrível que mergulha na mente das pessoas em um período em que as ferrovias estavam começando a se espalhar pela França no século XIX. Nessa história complexa, conhecemos Jacques Lantier, Séverine e Roubaud, e através deles, o autor explora temas como desejo, culpa, violência e o conflito entre nossa natureza civilizada e nossos instintos mais básicos.

Imagine o cenário das ferrovias se expandindo, conectando lugares distantes. A trama nos guia pelos caminhos entrelaçados desses personagens, revelando seus relacionamentos complicados e os traumas que eles carregam de suas famílias. Zola tece uma teia de segredos, ciúmes e impulsos violentos que nos fazem pensar sobre as partes sombrias da nossa própria mente.

Jacques Lantier é um personagem chave. Ele lida com impulsos violentos que o atormentam, especialmente em relação às mulheres. Sua vida muda quando conhece Séverine Roubaud, a esposa de Roubaud, um chefe de estação. Jacques fica obcecado por ela, e essa obsessão se mistura a acidentes terríveis na ferrovia, tornando a história ainda mais intrigante.

O livro se desenrola com uma mistura de romance proibido e crime. À medida que Jacques e Séverine se envolvem em um caso apaixonado, segredos surgem. Eles até tramam um assassinato juntos. Esse enredo chocante nos faz questionar o que acontece quando nossos impulsos mais sombrios tomam conta.

Uma ideia fundamental aqui é a "bestialidade". Isso é representado pelas características que herdamos de nossos antepassados. Jacques Lantier, por exemplo, luta contra seus desejos violentos. Ele quer redenção e amor, mas suas batalhas internas o conduzem a um caminho sombrio.

O livro culmina em momentos intensos, com assassinatos e revelações. Zola nos leva a refletir sobre nossa própria natureza, e como a sociedade pode escorregar para a violência quando não está controlada. Ele também critica teorias científicas da época, que tentavam explicar nosso comportamento.

Em resumo, "A Besta Humana" é um mergulho profundo na alma humana em meio ao avanço das ferrovias na França do século XIX. Com personagens complexos e uma trama envolvente, Zola nos faz pensar sobre nossos desejos, nossa moral e o que realmente nos define como humanos. É uma leitura que continua relevante, nos lembrando das nossas partes mais escuras, mesmo em um mundo em constante mudança.

gabguerin's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad tense slow-paced

4.5