Complete Works of Emile Zola (1897 page)

She lived for many years, very happy, and idolized by her husband, in a house which he owned near Marseilles, close to the seashore. She had no children by her second marriage. Le Docteur Pascal.

MOURET (OCTAVE), born 1840, son of Francois Mouret. La Fortune des Rougon.

A young man of high spirits and somewhat idle habits, he made little progress at college, and failed to pass the examinations for a degree. His father was much annoyed at this, and sent him off to Marseilles to enter a commercial business. The reports regarding him were, however, unsatisfactory, as it appeared that he showed no inclination to settle to hard work and was living a dissolute life.[*] La Conquete de Plassans.

After the death of his parents, Serge Mouret, who was about to take Holy Orders, renounced his share of his father’s fortune in favour of his brother Octave. La Faute de l’Abbe Mouret.

He was appointed a member of the family council which nominally had charge of Pauline Quenu’s fortune. La Joie de Vivre.

After three years at Marseilles he came to Paris, where he secured an appointment as assistant at “The Ladies’ Paradise” through the influence of the Campardons, who were old friends of his mother. He formed the project of advancing his prospects by making love to Madame Hedouin, wife of his employer, but she gave him no encouragement. He resigned his situation, and went as salesman to Auguste Vabre, a neighbouring silk merchant. Vabre’s wife (nee Berthe Josserand) was not on good terms with her husband, and a liaison was formed between her and Octave Mouret, which subsisted for some time before it was discovered by Vabre, who received information from Rachael, his maid-servant. Mouret returned to his former employment at “The Ladies’ Paradise,” and M. Hedouin having died in the interval, he married the widow a few months afterwards. He had developed keen business ability, with large ideas, and under his management the shop became one of the most important in the district. Pot-Bouille.

In Mouret’s hands the business of “The Ladies’ Paradise” continued to grow, and repeated extensions of the building became necessary. While one of these was in progress, Madame Mouret, who was inspecting the work, fell into a hole, and as a result of her injuries died three days afterwards. Mouret remained a widower, and devoted himself to the extension of his business, though it was believed that a liaison with Madame Desforges was not the only entanglement of its kind. On the introduction of Madame Desforges he came to know Baron Hartmann, director of the Credit Immobilier, who became interested in him, and eventually found the money necessary to carry out the vast schemes of extension which he had long had in mind. By this time Denise Baudu had come to “The Ladies’ Paradise” as a saleswoman, and from the first Mouret had taken an interest in her. This was probably increased by the fact that she resisted all his advances, and refused all his offers. Ultimately he became so infatuated by her that he asked her to marry him, which she agreed to do. By this time the success of “The Ladies’ Paradise” had become triumphant, and the smaller traders of the district were being crushed out of existence, and driven one by one into bankruptcy. Au Bonheur des Dames.

He assisted at the burial of his cousin, Claude Lantier the artist. By this time he had become very rich, was decorated with the Legion of Honour, and was desirous of giving the impression of an enlightened taste for art. L’Oeuvre.

Octave Mouret, whose immense fortune continued to increase, had towards the end of 1872 a second child by his wife Denise Baudu, whom he adored, though he again began to lead a somewhat irregular life. Their little girl was puny, but the younger child, a boy, took after his mother, and grew magnificently. Le Docteur Pascal.

    [*] It is interesting to note that by a curious oversight M.

    Zola in
Pot-Bouille
refers to Octave Mouret as having

    passed the examination for his bachelor’s degree before

    leaving Plassans, and states that at Marseilles the lad

    showed a passion for business life, being able during his

    three years’ stay there to make a sum of five thousand

    francs (two hundred pounds), which he took with him to

    Paris.

MOURET (MADAME CAROLINE), first wife of the preceding. See Madame Caroline Hedouin.

MOURET (MADAME DENISE), second wife of Octave Mouret. See Denise Baudu.

MOURET (SERGE), born 1841, son of Francois Mouret. La Fortune des Rougon.

He was a young man of nervous temperament and of somewhat delicate health. Educated at Plassans, he took his degree at the college there, and it was intended that he should go to Paris to study for the bar. The state of his health caused his departure to be delayed, and meantime he, like his mother, fell under the influence of Abbe Faujas. Ultimately he decided to abandon the study of the law in order to become a priest, and against the wishes of his father he entered the Seminary at Plassans. La Conquete de Plassans.

After being ordained to the priesthood he was appointed cure of Les Artaud, a small village in Provence, to whose degenerate inhabitants he ministered with small success. From his parents he had inherited the family taint of the Rougon-Macquarts, which in him took the form of morbid religious enthusiasm bordering on hysteria. Brain fever resulted, and bodily recovery left the priest without a mental past. Dr. Pascal Rougon, his uncle, in the hope of saving his reason, removed him to Paradou, the neglected demesne of a ruined mansion, where he left him in the care of Albine, the keeper’s niece. Here Serge slowly recovered his health, though the memory of his past was gone, and his mental development was that of a boy. In that enchanted garden, lush with foliage and with the scent of flowers, the drama of life unfolded, and Serge, loving Albine, and oblivious of his vows unwittingly broke them. A chance meeting with Brother Archangais, and a glimpse of the world outside the Paradou, recalled to Serge the recollection of his priesthood, and, filled with horror, he tore himself from Albine and returned to his cure of souls. A fierce struggle between love and duty followed, but in the end the Church conquered, and Albine was left to die, while Serge threw himself even more feverishly than before into the observances of his faith. La Faute de l’Abbe Mouret.

Sent later to Saint-Eutrope, at the bottom of a marshy gorge, he was cloistered there with his sister Desiree. He showed a fine humility, refusing all preferment from his bishop, waiting for death like a holy man, averse to remedies, although he was already in the early stage of phthisis. Le Docteur Pascal.

MOURET (SILVERE), born 1834, son of Mouret, the hatter, and Ursule Macquart, his wife. After the death of his father, Silvere went to live with his grandmother Adelaide Fouque. Though poorly educated, he was fond of reading, and his lonely life with this old half-imbecile woman increased his own tendency to visionary dreamings. “He was predisposed to Utopian ideas by certain hereditary influences; his grandmother’s nervous disorders became in him a chronic enthusiasm, striving after everything that was grandiose and impossible.” His Uncle Antoine Macquart, who hoped through him to annoy the Rougons, encouraged him in his Republican views, and after the
Coup d’Etat
he joined the insurrection which then arose. Miette Chantegreil, a young girl to whom he was tenderly devoted, accompanied him, but was shot in the attack by regular troops. He was taken prisoner, and having been brought back to Plassans, was executed there. La Fortune des Rougon.

MOUSSEAU (ABBE), a priest at Plassans. La Conquete de Plassans.

MOURGUE, a peasant of Poujols, who, armed with a fork, had taken part in the insurrectionary rising against the
Coup d’Etat
. He was made prisoner, and was led to Plassans, tied by the arm to Silvere Mouret, who had also been arrested. He was shot at the same time as Silvere by Rengade, the gendarme. La Fortune des Rougon.

MOUTON, a cat which belonged to the Quenus, and was a favourite of little Pauline. Le Ventre de Paris.

MUCHE, the name by which Louise Mehudin’s son was known in the market. He was befriended by Florent, who taught him to read and write. Le Ventre de Paris.

MUFFAT (MAMAN), wife of General Muffat de Beuville, who was created Comte by Napoleon I. She was an insufferable old woman, who was always hand-in-glove with the priests, and had an authoritative manner, which bent every one to her will. Her daughter-in-law, Comtesse Sabine, was entirely under her dominion, and was forced by her to lead an almost cloistered existence. Nana.

MUFFAT DE BEUVILLE (COMTE), son of the preceding and of General Muffat de Beuville. Brought up in the strictest manner by his mother, his life was one of cold and severe propriety, and being regarded with favour at the Court, he was appointed Chamberlain to the Empress. He married Sabine de Chouard, by whom he had one daughter, Estelle. For seventeen years of married life his career was a pattern of all the virtues, until a chance meeting with Nana led to an infatuation amounting to mania. Everything was sacrificed to her, and no degradation to his self-respect seemed too high a price to pay for her favour. Disgusted for a time by her liaison with Fontan, he left her, and turned for amusement to Rose Mignon, but the infatuation for Nana reasserted itself, and he recovered her good graces by inducing Bordenave to give her a part which she greatly desired in
La Petite Duchesse
, a play by Fauchery. He spent vast sums upon Nana, giving her a magnificent house in the Avenue de Villiers. Her influence over him became complete, and he even accepted Daguenet, her former lover, as his son-in-law. He overlooked too his wife’s numerous liaisons, as he required her signature to enable him to raise still more money for Nana. Muffat’s means were coming to an end, however, and the scandal reached such a height that he was forced to resign his position at the Tuileries. It was only when he learned that Nana was carrying on a liaison with his own father-in-law, the aged Marquis de Chouard, that he finally broke with her, and coming once more under the influence of Venot, he sought forgetfulness of the past in an exaggerated devotion to the service of the Church. Nana.

MUFFAT DE BEUVILLE (COMTESSE), wife of the preceding. See Sabine de Chouard. Nana.

MUFFAT DE BEUVILLE (ESTELLE), daughter of the preceding. At sixteen she was thin and insignificant, seldom speaking, but after her marriage to Daguenet, she exhibited a will of iron, and completely dominated her husband. Nana.

MULLER (BLANCHE), a favourite actress at the Theatre des Varietes. La Curee.

MUSSY (M. DE) was an admirer of Renee Saccard, and aspired to be her lover. He received an appointment on the staff of the London embassy. La Curee.

N

NANA. See Anna Coupeau.

NANA, name of a filly in the racing stable of Vandeuvres. She had been beaten in several races, and when run for the Grand Prix de Paris was looked on as an outsider. The success of the filly by fraudulent means led to the disqualification of the owner. Nana.

NAPOLEON III, Emperor of the French. Referred to in
Son Excellence Eugene Rougon
and in
La Debacle
.

NATHANSOHN, a stockbroker. He came from Besancon, where his father was a watchmaker. He was very fortunate in his speculations, and soon became a man of consequence. His Jewish caution prevented him from becoming involved with Saccard in the affairs of the Universal Bank, and when that institution collapsed he was in a position to snatch a fortune from its ruin. L’Argent.

NAUD, a shoemaker in Rue d’Antin who felt severely the competition of Octave Mouret’s great shop. Au Bonheur des Dames.

NAUDET, a cousin of the Quenus. He was a member of Pauline’s family council, and consented to her emancipation. La Joie de Vivre.

NAUDET, a picture-dealer who for some years had been revolutionizing the trade. He put aside the old cautious methods, the watching for pictures by beginners, bought for ten francs and sold for fifteen. To judge by his appearance he might have been a nobleman, and his habits were in keeping; he was, in fact, a pure speculator in pictures, caring nothing for art. But he unfailingly scented success; he guessed what artists ought to be taken up, not the ones likely to develop the genius of a great painter, but the one whose deceptive talent, set off by a pretended display of audacity, would command a premium in the market. He speculated, in fact, on the ignorance and vanity of amateurs. It was he who invented Fagerolles as a fashion, and made large sums out of his works. His success in forcing up the prices of pictures turned his head to some extent, and he even talked of crushing out all the other dealers. The exaggerated rise in the price of pictures came, as was inevitable, to an end, and in the fall which followed Naudet was practically ruined. L’Oeuvre.

NEGREL (MADAME), sister of M. Hennebeau, the manager of the Montsou mines. She was married to a captain, and after she became a widow lived at Avignon on a small income, contenting herself with little in order that she might properly educate her son Paul. Germinal.

NEGREL (PAUL), son of the preceding. He was an engineer at the Voreux pit, an appointment which he received from his uncle, M. Hennebeau, with whom he lived, being treated as one of the family. Madame Hennebeau, notwithstanding a liaison which subsisted between her and Negrel, planned for him a marriage with Cecile Gregoire, an arrangement which was only prevented by the murder of the girl by old Bonnemort. Negrel posed as taking no interest in the affairs of practical life, but in the terrible disaster at the Voreux pit he threw himself into the work of rescue with an ardour beyond praise. Germinal.

NOEMI, an actress at the Vaudeville. Madame Deberle admired the realistic manner in which she died in a piece she played. Une Page d’Amour.

NORINE, a vendor of salted provisions, who went around the neighbourhood of Cloyes. La Terre.

NORMANDE (LA), the sobriquet of Louise Mehudin. Le Ventre de Paris.

NOUGAREDE, an old senator who was on the point of asking the hand of Clorinde Balbi after having seen her at a ball in the character of Diana the huntress. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

O