The Fortune of the Rougons: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Fortune of the Rougons, credited to Émile Zola, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Fortune of the Rougons by Émile Zola. (Translated by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly.) Read in English by Peter Tucker The Fortune of the Rougons (French: La Fortune des Rougon), originally published in 1871, is the first novel in Émile Zola's monumental twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. In his introduction Zola indicates that this series is intended to demonstrate the interaction of heredity and environment along the lines of natural selection and evolution. While Zola's metascience is questionable, this novel is successful in its analysis of the interaction of momentous social and political events and the everyday lives and aspirations of a provincial society. In a satisfyingly intricate, vast and integrated plot, set in the time of Napoleon III's coup d'etat and establishment of the Second Empire, the fates and fortunes of the disparate descendents of one Provencal family are traced in detail. The novel ranges from idyll to cynical observation of base motives, and ends in a way that anticipates its many sequels. Summary by the soloist.

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Fortune of the Rougons
• Author credits: Émile Zola
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 16
• Listed recording duration: 13:14:06

Catalogue topics

• France
• historical

Track guide

1. 00 - Introduction and Author's Preface — 15:23
2. 01 - Chapter 1, Part 1 — 35:30
3. 02 - Chapter 1, Part 2 — 39:04
4. 03 - Chapter 2, Part 1 — 48:31
5. 04 - Chapter 2, Part 2 — 45:58
6. 05 - Chapter 3, Part 1 — 46:09
7. 06 - Chapter 3, Part 2 — 56:16
8. 07 - Chapter 4, Part 1 — 54:43
9. 08 - Chapter 4, Part 2 — 1:07:09
10. 09 - Chapter 5, Part 1 — 1:00:11
11. 10 - Chapter 5, Part 2 — 41:44
12. 11 - Chapter 5, Part 3 — 41:57
13. 12 - Chapter 6, Part 1 — 1:02:12
14. 13 - Chapter 6, Part 2 — 1:03:27
15. 14 - Chapter 6, Part 3 — 1:01:47
16. 15 - Chapter 7 — 54:06

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.