La Conquête de Plassans

Emile Zola

The Conquest of Plassans is a novel by Émile Zola published in 1874, the fourth in the series Les Rougon-Macquart. The action takes place in Plassans, the birthplace of the Rougon-Macquart family, a small town that Zola imagined based on Aix-en-Provence. The town, acquired from Napoleon III thanks to the intrigues of the Rougon family (La Fortune des Rougon), has passed to the legitimists. A Bonapartist priest, Abbé Faujas, is sent there by the government to reconquer it.