Complete Works of Emile Zola (1881 page)

CORBIERE (COMTE DE), proprietor of the Paradou, an estate near Artaud. When he died, the care of the property was confided to Jeanbernat, a foster-brother of the Comte. La Faute de l’Abbe Mouret.

CORBREUSE (DUC DE), proprietor of a racing-stable. Nana.

CORNAILLE, the principal draper in Valognes. Denise Baudu served her apprenticeship to him. Au Bonheur des Dames.

CORNEMUSE, a racehorse which was the prize of the City of Paris. Nana.

CORNILLE, a member of the firm of Cornille and Jenard, who held in the eighteenth century the mineral concession of Joiselle, which was joined in 1760 to two neighbouring concessions, those of Comte de Cougny and of Baron Desrumaux, in order to form the Company of the Mines of Montsou. Germinal.

CORNILLE (ABBE), one of the clergy of the cathedral of Beaumont. He accompanied Monseigneur d’Hautecoeur when the latter came to administer the last rites of the Church to Angelique. Le Reve.

CORREUR (MADAME MELANIE), was the daughter of a notary of Coulonges, a town in the district of Niort. When she was twenty-four years old she eloped with a journeyman butcher, and thereafter lived in Paris, ignored by her family. For some time she kept a boarding-house at the Hotel Vanneau in the Rue Vanneau, where among her lodgers were Eugene Rougon, Du Poizet, and Theodore Gilquin. She established a claim on Rougon’s gratitude, and he assisted a number of her friends in obtaining pensions and appointments. Having ascertained that her brother, M. Martineau, had made a will by which she would benefit, she, knowing him to be in bad health, denounced him to Rougon as a dangerous Republican. His arrest and sudden death followed. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

COSINUS, a racehorse which ran in the Grand Prix de Paris. Nana.

COSSARD (LE PERE), prompter at the Theatre des Varietes. He was a little hunchback.

COUDELOUP (MADAME), a baker in Rue des Poissonniers. She supplied the Coupeaus until Lantier decided that they must have finer bread from a Viennese bakery. L’Assommoir.

COUGNY (COMTE DE), owner in the eighteenth century of the mining concession of Cougny, which in 1760 was joined to two neighbouring concessions to form the Company of the Mines of Montsou. Germinal.

COUILLOT (LES), peasants at Rognes. Their son got the number 206 in the drawing for the conscription. La Terre.

COUPEAU, a zinc-worker, who married Gervaise Macquart after her desertion by Lantier. He was the son of a drunken father, but was himself steady and industrious until a serious accident caused by a fall from a roof brought about a change. After that he became unwilling to work and began to spend his time in public-houses; his days of work became fewer and fewer, until, a confirmed drunkard, he lived entirely on his wife’s earnings. Attacks of delirium tremens followed, and in the end he died in the Asylum of Sainte-Anne after an attack of more than usual violence. L’Assommoir.

COUPEAU (MADAME GERVAISE), wife of the preceding. See Gervaise Macquart. L’Assommoir.

COUPEAU (ANNA, known as NANA), born 1852, was the only child of Coupeau and Gervaise Macquart, his wife. Almost from infancy she was allowed to run wild in the gutters of Paris, and even in childhood her instincts were vicious. At thirteen years of age she was sent to learn artificial-flower making in the establishment of Madame Titreville, whose forewoman was Madame Lerat, Nana’s aunt. She had been there some time when she began to receive attentions from an elderly gentleman who had noticed her going to work. Meantime her father and mother had taken to drink so seriously that home life had become intolerable, and, after one of innumerable quarrels, Nana ran away to her venerable admirer. After a few months she tired of him and left, to spend her time amongst the low-class dancing-halls, in one of which she was found by her father, who brought her home, where she remained for a fortnight, and then ran off again. From time to time she returned, but her visits gradually became less frequent till they ceased. L’Assommoir.

At sixteen years of age she had a child by an unknown father, and two years later was installed in a flat in Boulevard Haussmann by a rich merchant of Moscow, who had come to pass the winter in Paris. Bordenave, the director of the Theatre des Varietes, gave her a part in a play called
La Blonde Venus
, and though her voice was poor and she was ignorant of acting, she was by the sheer force of her beauty an immediate and overwhelming success. All Paris was at her feet; Comte Muffat, Steiner, the Prince of Scots himself, came in turn to offer homage. It seemed as if this girl, born of four or five generations of drunkards and brought up on the pavements of Paris, was to revenge her race upon the idle rich by the wild extravagances into which she dragged them. Muffat and Steiner were her lovers, and ruined themselves by the vast sums which she squandered; Georges Hugon killed himself from jealousy of his brother Philippe, who embezzled for her sake, and brought himself to imprisonment and disgrace; Vandeuvres too, after courting dishonour, met death at his own hand; and Foucarmont, stripped bare and cast off, went to perish in the China seas. The procession was unending; more money was always required. After a successful appearance in a play called
Melusine
, Nana suddenly left Paris and went to the East. Strange stories were told of her — the conquest of a viceroy, a colossal fortune acquired in Russia — but nothing definite was known. When she returned to Paris in 1870 she found that her son Louiset had been attacked by small-pox, and she herself contracted the disease from him. A few days later she died in a room in the Grand Hotel, nursed only by Rose Mignon, who had come to her in her trouble. The war with Germany had just broken out, and as she lay dying the passing crowds were shouting ceaselessly, “A Berlin, A Berlin.” Nana.

COUPEAU (LOUIS). See Louiset.

COUPEAU (MADAME), mother of Coupeau the zinc-worker. She was an old woman, and, her sight having given way, was unable to support herself. Her daughter, Madame Lorilleux, refused anything but the most trifling assistance, and ultimately Gervaise Coupeau took the old woman into her own home and supported her till her death, which occurred some years later. L’Assommoir.

COURAJOD, a great landscape painter, whose masterpiece, the
Pool at Gagny
, is in the Luxembourg. Long before his death he disappeared from the world of art, and lived in a little house at Montmartre surrounded by his hens, ducks, rabbits, and dogs. He refused to speak of his former fame, and when Claude Lantier called on him the old man seemed to be entering into a second childhood, forgetful of his past. L’Oeuvre.

COUTARD, a soldier of infantry who belonged to the Second Division of the First Army Corps, which was defeated at Wissembourg on 4th August, 1870. He and his companion Picot were slightly wounded, and were left behind, not being able to rejoin their regiments for three weeks, most of which they spent tramping the country through wet and mud, endeavouring to overtake the vanquished army of France. La Debacle.

CRASSE (LA), i.e. “The Dirty.” Sobriquet of a professor at the college of Plassans, so called by the pupils as he marked by the constant rubbing of his head the back of every chair he occupied. L’Oeuvre.

CREVECOEUR, a lace merchant in Rue Mail. Henri Deloche left his employment, and entered Octave Mouret’s shop on the same day as Denise Baudu. Au Bonheur des Dames.

CRON, a carter at Vendome. He was the father of Leonie Cron. L’Argent.

CRON (LEONIE), the girl to whom the Comte de Beauvilliers gave the document which afterwards came into the hands of Busch, and was used by him as a means of blackmailing the widow of the Comte. L’Argent.

CUCHE, a family of fisher people who resided at Bonneville. They were ruined by their house being washed away by the sea. The father and mother lived extremely dissolute lives, and their son grew up little better than a savage. Pauline Quenu made great efforts to reform him, but he refused all attempts to make him settle down. La Joie de Vivre.

CUDORGE (MADAME), a seller of umbrellas in the Rue Neuve de la Goutte d’Or, where she was a neighbour of Gervaise Lantier. L’Assommoir.

CUGNOT (PAULINE), daughter of a miller at Chartres who was ruined by a lawsuit. She came to Paris, and eventually got a situation at “The Ladies’ Paradise,” where she showed much kindness to Denise Baudu, who was at first badly treated by the other employees there. Later on she married Bauge, her lover, but was allowed to retain her situation. Au Bonheur des Dames.

D

DABADIE, chief station-master at Havre. He was a handsome man, with the bearing of a commercial magnate engrossed in business. Indeed, he willingly left the passenger department of the station to his assistants, in order that he might give particular attention to the enormous transit of merchandise at the docks. It is said that he was on friendly terms with Mademoiselle Guichon, the office-keeper at the station. La Bete Humaine.

DAGUENET (PAUL), the favoured lover of Nana. His father who was highly esteemed by Louis Philippe, occupied a prefecture up to the time of his death. As for himself, he had gone through three hundred thousand francs in eighteen months in the pursuit of pleasure, and was only able to keep going by small speculations on the Stock Exchange. Attracted by the fortune of Estelle Muffat, he decided to marry her, and with the assistance of Nana obtained the consent of Count Muffat. Become serious after marriage, Daguenet came under the influence of Theophile Venot, and was ruled with a rod of iron by his wife, who now exhibited a character entirely unsuspected before. He now went to Mass, and was furious with his father-in-law, who was ruining the family on account of Nana. Nana.

DAGUENET (MADAME). See Estelle Muffat de Beuville.

DAIGREMONT, a Paris financier who was possessed of an enormous fortune. It was said that his fidelity was not quite reliable, and that on one occasion at least he played his allies false and swept away the profits. He was approached by Saccard before the foundation of the Universal Bank, and being assured that Eugene Rougon was to back up his brother, he agreed to become one of the directors. He supported Saccard during the great gamble in the shares of the bank, and even on the day of the collapse had promised to come on the market and buy so heavily as to put up the price of the shares. Having received information through Jacoby that Gundermann was determined at any cost to break the market, Daigremont deserted Saccard, and instead of buying, sold all the shares he had, thereby bringing about the final collapse. L’Argent.

DAIGREMONT (MADAME), wife of the preceding. She was celebrated for her beauty and for her fine singing. L’Argent.

DALICHAMP, a doctor at Raucourt, six kilometres from Remilly. He was a man of brusque manner, but of excellent heart, who showed much kindness to his patients. In the middle of August, 1870, he established an ambulance at Raucourt, and after Jean Macquart, severely wounded, had arrived at the house of Pere Fouchard, Dalichamp attended him secretly till his recovery. It was through him that Henriette Weiss and Jean gained their knowledge of the disasters which were everywhere overtaking the French army. La Debacle.

DAMBREVILLE, a Government official who married in order to secure promotion through the influence of his wife. Pot-Bouille.

DAMBREVILLE (MADAME), wife of the preceding. An elderly woman with a passion for Leon Josserand, whose appointment as Maitre des Requetes she procured by her influence. She promised to secure a wealthy wife for him, but delayed to do so until he insisted on a match being arranged between him and her niece Raymonde. Her friendly relations with him continued to subsist even after his marriage. Pot-Bouille.

DAMBREVILLE (RAYMONDE), niece of Dambreville. See Madame Leon Josserand.

DANSAERT, a head captain in the Voreux pit. He was brutal and overbearing with the workmen, but humble in the presence of his superiors. Though it was well known that he was the lover of La Pierronne, he was friendly with her husband, and got information from him regarding the progress of the strike. On the day of the accident in the pit he became mad with fear, and leaped into one of the cages, leaving his men at the bottom. This action, together with the scandals regarding him, caused the company to decide on his dismissal. Germinal.

DASTE (MADAME), a friend of the Saccards and of Madame de Lauwerens. La Curee.

DAUVERGNE, deputy station-master for the main lines at the Gare Saint-Lazare. He occupied with his family, Claire, Henri, and Sophie, a house belonging to the railway company in the Impasse d’Amsterdam. La Bete Humaine.

DAUVERGNE (CLAIRE), daughter of the preceding and sister of Sophie. The two sisters were both charming blondes, one eighteen and the other twenty, who, amidst a constant stream of gaiety, looked after the housekeeping with the six thousand francs earned by the two men. The elder one would be heard laughing, while the younger sang, and a cage full of exotic birds rivalled one another in roulades. La Bete Humaine.

DAUVERGNE (HENRI), a chief guard in the service of the Western Railway Company. He was in love with Severine Roubaud, but was aware of her liaison with Jacques Lantier. He was injured in the railway accident at Croix-de-Maufras, and having been removed to a house which belonged to Severine, he was nursed by her there. In a hallucination of illness, he believed that he heard, outside his window, Roubaud arranging with Cabuche for the murder of Severine: his mistaken evidence was greatly instrumental in leading to the conviction of the two men. La Bete Humaine.

DAUVERGNE (SOPHIE), the elder of the two sisters. La Bete Humaine.

DAVOINE, the purchaser of Chanteau’s timber business at Caen. When Chanteau became incapacitated by gout, he sold his business to Davoine for a hundred thousand francs, of which one-half was to be paid in cash and the balance to remain in the business. Davoine was, however, constantly launching into speculations, and the consequence was that the profits were drained away, and the balance sheet generally showed a loss. He ultimately became bankrupt, and Chanteau lost all the money he had left in the business. La Joie de Vivre.

DEBERLE (DOCTOR HENRI), a medical man of Passy who inherited from his father a large fortune and an excellent practice. A chance call to attend Jeanne Grandjean led to an intimacy with her mother, which resulted in the fleeting love episode which forms the subject of the novel. Deberle, deceived by the circumstances under which Helene Grandjean prevented an assignation between his wife and M. Malignon, believed that Helene had arranged an assignation with himself, and she found it impossible to enlighten him without compromising his wife. The brief liaison was terminated by the illness and death of Jeanne. Une Page d’Amour.