Complete Works of Emile Zola (1893 page)

LOUIS, Irma Becot’s butler at her house in the Avenue de Villiers. L’Oeuvre.

LOUIS, cousin of Cabuche, and, like him, a quarryman. He drove Cabuche’s wagon on the evening of the murder of President Grandmorin. La Bete Humaine.

LOUIS, an artillery gunner, in the same battery as Honore Fouchard and Adolphe. He was mated with Adolphe, who was inclined to treat him as an inferior. In the attack by the Prussians on the Calvary d’Illy Louis fell, killed by the same shot as his comrade, and the two died entwined in one another’s arms. La Debacle.

LOUIS (LA MERE), a wine-seller, who was famous for her “hen feet.” L’Assommoir.

LOUISE, an actress at the Palais-Royal. Nana.

LOUISE, a young girl who was brought up in an Orphanage. At fifteen she went as maid-servant to Madame Jazeur, but not proving satisfactory, was sent back to the Orphanage. Pot-Bouille.

LOUISET, the pet name of Louis Coupeau, son of Nana, born 1867. Left at first with a nurse in the country, he was afterwards taken charge of by his aunt, Madame Lerat, who removed him to Batignolles. He was a delicate child, pale and scrofulous, bearing a legacy of ill-health derived from an unknown father. He died in July, 1870, of small-pox, which he communicated to his mother, who had just returned from Russia. Nana.

LOUISETTE, the younger daughter of Madame Misard (Aunt Phasie). She was a fair and sweet child who had a strong affection for Cabuche, a man who was regarded by nearly everyone as an outcast. As a maid-servant in the house of Madame Bonnehon, she attracted the notice of President Grandmorin, and fleeing from him, half-mad with fear, she came to the hut of Cabuche, who tenderly nursed her till she died of brain fever a few days later. La Bete Humaine.

LOULOU, a dog which belonged to Nana. Nana.

LULU, a dog which belonged to Nana. Nana.

LUSIGNAN, a racehorse in the stable of Vandeuvres. Mounted by Gresham, it was the favourite in the race for the Grand Prix de Paris. Nana.

M

MACQUART, a poacher and smuggler who lived at Plassans in a hovel adjoining the Fouque property. His reputation was of the worst, and “although no crimes had actually been brought home to him, the first suspicions always fell upon him whenever a theft or murder had been perpetrated in the country.” He frequently disappeared for long periods, but during his short sojourns in the town he drank to great excess. He became the lover of Adelaide Fouque in 1789, less than a year after the death of her husband, and had two children by her, Antoine and Ursule Macquart. A man of violent and unrestrained passions, and of incorrigibly lazy habits, he retained complete influence over Adelaide, and they lived in the same relationship for over twenty years. About 1810, Macquart was killed on the frontier by a custom-house officer while he was endeavouring to smuggle a cargo of Geneva watches into France. Adelaide was sole legatee, the estate consisting of the hovel at Plassans and the carbine of the deceased, which a smuggler loyally brought back to her. La Fortune des Rougon.

MACQUART (ANTOINE), born 1789, son of Macquart the smuggler and Adelaide Fouque; was drawn in the conscription in 1809. On his return to Plassans, he found that his half-brother Pierre had sold the family property and had appropriated the proceeds. Being a confirmed drunkard, he was averse from work of any kind, but in order to support himself he learned the trade of basket-making. In 1826 he married Josephine Gavaudan, a market-woman, whom he afterwards allowed to support him. They had three children, Lisa, Gervaise, and Jean. His wife died in 1850, and soon after his daughter Gervaise and his son Jean, who had assisted to keep him in idleness, ran off. He had a bitter ill-will towards his brother Pierre Rougon, and, chiefly with a view to his annoyance, expressed strong Republican principles. For the same reason he took every opportunity of teaching these principles to his young nephew Silvere Mouret. After the
Coup d’Etat
he took an active share in the agitation which resulted in a Republican rising. When the Insurgents left Plassans, he remained with a few men to overawe the inhabitants. He and his whole band were, however, taken prisoners by the citizens under the leadership of Pierre Rougon. He was assisted to escape by Madame Felicite Rougon, who promised him a sum of money on condition that he would bring about an attack on the Town Hall by the Republicans. He did so the same night, and an ambush having been prepared by the Rougons, a number of lives were sacrificed. He thereafter left the country. La Fortune des Rougon.

Some time afterwards he returned to France, and bought a small house at Les Tulettes, about three leagues from Plassans. He fitted up his establishment by degrees, and even became possessed of a horse and trap. Where the money came from no one knew, but it was believed that his brother Pierre Rougon was keeping him. Notwithstanding this, he had great ill-will towards the Rougons, and lost no opportunity of annoying them. Partly with this object, and partly at the instigation of Abbe Fenil, who wished to be revenged on Abbe Faujas, he contrived the escape of Francois Mouret from the asylum at Les Tulettes; as result, Mouret returned to Plassans, and setting fire to his house, caused the death of Abbe Faujas, himself perishing in the flames. La Conquete de Plassans.

Macquart lived to an old age at Les Tulettes, though he increasingly gave way to drunkenness. His relations with the Rougons were friendly, but he was hated by Felicite on account of his knowledge of the origin of the family fortune. At eighty-four years of age he was still healthy, but his flesh was so saturated with alcohol that it seemed to be preserved by it. One day, as he was sitting helpless with drink and smoking his pipe, he set fire to his clothes, and his body, soaked as it was with ardent spirits, was burned to the last bone. Felicite Rougon chanced to enter the house just as the conflagration began, but she did nothing to stop it, and went silently away. The combustion was so complete that there was nothing left to bury, and the family had to content itself with having masses said for the repose of the dead. When Macquart’s will was opened, it was found that he had left all his money for the erection of a magnificent tomb for himself, with weeping angels at the head and foot. Le Docteur Pascal.

MACQUART (MADAME ANTOINE), wife of the preceding. See Josephine Gavaudan.

MACQUART (GERVAISE), born 1828, was a daughter of Antoine Macquart, and was slightly lame from birth. She was apprenticed to a laundress, but at an early age had two children to a journeyman tanner named Lantier.[*]

Soon after the death of her mother, in 1850, she ran off to Paris with Lantier and her children, Claude, a boy of eight, and Etienne, aged four. La Fortune des Rougon.

The party had only been in the city a few weeks when Lantier ran off with a girl named Adele, leaving Gervaise and the children unprovided for. She got work in the laundry of Madame Fauconnier, and not long after received an offer of marriage from Coupeau, a respectable zinc-worker, which after some hesitation she accepted. The marriage took place, and for a considerable time things prospered, one child, a daughter named Nana being born. An accident to Coupeau, who fell from a roof and was seriously injured, led to a gradual change; formerly temperate and industrious, he became unwilling to work, and began to spend his time in public-houses. Gervaise had meantime taken a shop with money borrowed from the Goujets, and had started a laundry in it. She was at first successful, but in time grew lazy and fond of good living, while Coupeau continued idle and became increasingly intemperate. Business began to go, and Gervaise became more careless, even taking more drink occasionally than she had been wont to do. About this time Lantier, her former lover, appeared again, and made friends with Coupeau, who agreed to take him into the house as a lodger. After that, the descent of Gervaise was rapid. Lantier never paid anything for his support, Coupeau drank more heavily than ever, and Gervaise, who was gradually drifting into intemperance, resumed her old connection with her lover. All the time work was being neglected, and debts were accumulating with alarming rapidity. Eventually Madame Virginie Poisson took over the shop, and with it Lantier, who transferred his affections along with the lease, and the Coupeaus removed into a small house high up in the same building. Coupeau suffered from repeated attacks of delirium tremens, and eventually died in an asylum. Gervaise continued to sink still lower, until no work was too menial or too repulsive for her to undertake for the price of drink, and one day in the winter of 1869 she was found dead in a garret of that great tenement house where she had passed so much of her life. L’Assommoir.

Her sister, Lisa Quenu, the pork-butcher, did not come to her assistance. Lisa did not like people who were unfortunate, and she was ashamed that Gervaise should have married a workman. Le Ventre de Paris.

Her son Etienne sent her small sums of money from time to time while he was in a situation at Lille. Germinal.

    [*] These two are the only children of Gervaise and Lantier

    mentioned by M. Zola in
La Fortune des Rougon
,

    
L’Assommoir
,
L’Oeuvre
, and
Germinal
. In
La Bete

    Humaine
, however, the hero, Jacques Lantier, is stated to

    have been a child of these parents.

MACQUART (JEAN), born 1811, son of Antoine Macquart, was apprenticed to a carpenter. A quiet, industrious lad, Jean’s father took advantage of his simple nature and made him give up his whole earnings to assist in keeping him in idleness. Like his sister Gervaise, he ran off soon after the death of his mother. La Fortune des Rougon.

He entered the army, and, after seven years of soldiering was discharged in 1859. When he had left the ranks he turned up at Bazoches-le-Doyen with a comrade, a joiner like himself; and he resumed his occupation with the latter’s father, a master carpenter in the village. But his heart was no longer in his work, and having been sent to La Borderie to make some repairs, he stayed on to assist at the harvest, and eventually became a regular farm servant. He was not popular, however, with the peasants, who resented his having had a trade before he came back to the soil. He became acquainted at Rognes with Mouche and his daughters, Lise and Francoise, and eventually married the latter, in spite of the determined opposition of her brother-in-law, Buteau. Notwithstanding his marriage, he remained a stranger, and, after the death of his wife, went away, leaving everything in the hands of her relatives. The war with Germany had just broken out, and Jean, disgusted with his life, again enlisted in the service of his country. La Terre.

He was made corporal in the 106th Regiment of the line, commanded by Colonel Vineuil. An excellent soldier, and invaluable by reason of his former experience, his want of education prevented him being promoted to higher rank. Maurice Levasseur was in his company, and between the two men there was at first deep antagonism, caused by difference of class and education, but little by little Jean was able to gain over the other, till the two men became close friends. In the fierce fighting at Sedan, each in turn saved the other’s life. After the battle, they were made prisoners, but escaped, Jean receiving a severe wound during their flight. They took refuge at Remilly in the house of Fouchard, and Jean was nursed by Henriette Weiss, Levasseur’s sister. Under her care, the wounded man came to dream of the possibility of a life of happiness with this woman, so tender, so sweet, and so active, whose fate had been so sad. But the chances of war were too hard; Maxime returned to Paris, and after the conclusion of the war took part in the Communist rising, which Jean assisted to quell. By an extraordinary chance, the two men, loving one another as brothers, came to be fighting on opposite sides, and it was the hand of Jean that was fated to inflict the fatal wound upon his friend. He had killed the brother of the woman he loved, and henceforth there could be nothing between them, so he passed from her life, returning to assist in that cultivation of the soil which was needed to rejuvenate his country. La Debacle.

He settled at Valqueyras, near Plassans, where he married Melanie Vial, the only daughter of a peasant farmer in easy circumstances, whose land he cultivated. Calm and sensible, always at his plough, his wife simple and strong, he raised a large and healthy family to assist in replenishing the soil exhausted by the horrors of war. Le Docteur Pascal.

MACQUART (MADAME JEAN), first wife of the preceding. See Francoise Mouche. La Terre.

MACQUART (MADAME JEAN), second wife of Jean Macquart. See Melanie Vial. Le Docteur Pascal.

MACQUART (LISA), born 1827, daughter of Antoine Macquart. When a child of seven she was taken as maid-servant by the wife of the postmaster at Plassans, whom she accompanied to Paris on her removal there in 1839. La Fortune des Rougon.

The old lady became very much attached to the girl, and when she died left her all her savings, amounting to ten thousand francs. Gradelle, a pork-butcher, who had become acquainted with Lisa by seeing her in the shop with her mistress, offered her a situation. She accepted, and soon the whole place seemed to belong to her; she enslaved Gradelle, his nephew Quenu, and even the smallest kitchen-boy. She became a beautiful woman, with a love of ease and the determination to secure it by steady application to duty. After the sudden death of Gradelle, she married Quenu, who had succeeded to the business, and they had one daughter, Pauline. Soon their affairs became so prosperous that Lisa induced her husband to remove to a larger shop. On Florent’s return from exile, she received him kindly, and at once proposed to hand over to him his share of the money and property left by Gradelle, his uncle, which, however, he refused to accept. After a time she became tired of always seeing her brother-in-law about the house doing nothing, and was the means of making him accept the situation as Inspector at the Fish Market. When she heard of the Revolutionary meetings in Lebigre’s wine-shop and of the leading part taken by Florent, she became greatly alarmed, more especially as Quenu had begun to accompany his brother occasionally. She succeeded in frightening her husband into giving up the meetings, and made it clear to Florent that he was no longer welcome in her house. Alarmed by the gossip of Mlle. Saget and others as to the progress of the conspiracy, she determined, after consultation with Abbe Roustan, to secure the safety of her husband and herself by informing the police of the plot. On going to the prefect, however, she learned that he had all along known of Florent’s presence in Paris, and of the meetings, and was only waiting a favourable opportunity of arresting the plotters. She concealed the impending arrest from her husband and from Florent. Notwithstanding her action in this matter, Lisa was not an ill-natured or callous woman. She was only determined that nothing should come between her and a life of ease. In her there was much of her father’s nature, though she did not know it. She was merely a steady, sensible Macquart with a logical desire for comfort, and to procuring this she gave all her time and thought. Le Ventre de Paris.