Money (Oxford Worlds Classics)

This novel must be assessed from its period and the naturalist style in which it is written. It is a story of greed and investment gambling, and financial ethics, the underlying collapse from which a grand and manic capitalist enterprise was hatched, expanded and over valued unnaturally by the obsession of one egotistical, cruel man, and the consequences spread to all investors, turning them into paupers in an afternoon. The sense of doom hangs over everything from the first page. The reader is viscerally aware of the inevitability of destruction page after page. If one expects a feel good story, this is not the novel. Instead it is a novel with a clear moral.

A satisfying novel about the economic and social realities of the French Second Empire filled with intriguing, complex characters and relevant historical lessons. Chronologically, this is the 18th of 20 of Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle, but recommended by him as the fourth to be read.Here we encounter Aristide Rougon (known as Saccard) for the third time. In The Fortune of the Rougons, Aristide is a vacillating, opportunistic young man. In The Kill he becomes Saccard, a man driven to acquire wealth by any means, even it means marrying and destroying a young heiress. In Money we learn about a more multifaceted Saccard who can be ruthless and compassionate at the same time.Zola creates a universe of individuals who represent virtually all facets of the human condition. As he is quoted in the introduction (which should be read after completion of the novel), "It is very difficult to write a novel about money. It's cold, icy, lacking in interest..." Thankfully this work is anything but, it is a great novel brought back into public consciousness through the first new translation in more than 100 years.Of course, much of the interest in the new translation must have been spurred by the events of the financial crisis of 2008. It is remarkable and disturbing that so many the facts of the most recent crisis had parallels in Zola's novel. For those who want to learn about modern economics, Money is as good a starting point as any. It is filled with lessons that bring Santayana's aphorism about the lessons of repeated history to life.

... of the Rougon-Macquart series, MONEY is the 18th novel in the 20 novel sequence. Saccard, the main character, was first introduced in THE KILL and his career in high finance has advanced.What can an American or English reader say about the minor novels of Zola? (Minor novels means about two-thirds of the series.) My opinion is that Zola is a better novelist than many British novelists of the Victorian era and far superior to their American counterparts. Excepting MOBY DICK and THE SCARLET LETTER, the novels of Melville and Hawthorne range from mediocre to dreadful (PIERRE is ridiculously unreadable, THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES is a book to yawn over.) A lot of George Eliot, Hardy, and Conrad is inferior to Zola, and even a book like NANA is a much better read than the best of Henry James.The novels by Zola to avoid are THE DREAM, DOCTOR PASCUAL, two or three others. The rest are as much worth your attention as ADAM BEDE, THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE, and VICTORY.

In this book the family mania is directed towards playing the stock market, and there is a subplot wherin we glimpse a nasty shantytown. The exact details of many facets of the investment game are described. That's one of the best parts of this series for me: having a tour inside some subculture I'd never before known a thing about. There are many very memorable supporting characters, and the personal interactions are also very vivid in this one, so if you want people who seem very real, who go through ups and downs that will move you, who have good and bad mixed inside them, you'll love this book. Since reading this one I've read The Dream and A Love Episode and both were very inferior- they had neither the educational aspect (describing a trade or lifestyle in depth) nor the larger-than-life yet somehow very relateable people or emotional roller-coaster of a plot. I wouldn't say this is my FAVOURITE Zola, maybe not even in my top 5, but it was definitely a great read!

I've came across Emile Zola's book when I read André Kostolany's Psychology of Stock Market, which is also an amazing book. Both lead me to look back in history and find answers of problems we have today. Indeed, money represents greed, fear, envy, all of which are the very emotion of humanbeings, but money is also the ferment of future's growth, without which society cannot evolve. Those who look at history as a whole, from boom to bust, or as a bear to a bull, will realize these pairs are inseparable. It's not we are living in a cruel world where things are far from being fair, but rather it's the point that just living on this Earth is enough to recover from all the pains it costs and continue to be hopeful and joyful until the day we die.

I like Zola’s work.

To ask those questions about the classics seem absurd to me. Either you like Zola or you don't.

Nothing to add.

Money is the 18th (of 20) in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series of novels, a 'Natural and Social History of a Family under the Second Empire' in France.This brilliant novel follows the fortunes of Aristide Rougon, known as Saccard, as he pursues his way through the French financial institutions, with a grand scheme to build a bank (the Universal Bank) and speculate on the stock market. A power house of a novel with a great cast of characters typical of Zola. Saccard enjoys great appetites in life, money being the main one and as he builds his bank and makes an incredible fortune on the stock market for his share holders, taking in all classes of people, from the most humble and poor, to the rich. But as the share prices for the Universal soar to untold of highs not all is as it should be, shady goings on mean that the eventual crash of the bank and the schemes and undertakings in the Middle East leave all involved a lot worse of than when they began.As with all the Zola novels in the Rougon-Macquart series that I have read this is highly recommended, Zola's brilliant descriptions of people, places and events mean that one is engrossed from beginning to end and it is nicely (as are all OWC books) annotated, showing that some events and people are based in part on real people and events and some even mirror recent events - what goes around, comes around.Anyone who loves reading (especially 19th c novels) and has yet to try Zola, please give him a go. Recommended titles are; L'Assommoir (the dram shop); Nana; Germinal; La Bete Humaine. All excellent, but I started with L'Assommoir and recommend that as as good a novel to start with as any.

This is a novel about the Paris stock exchange in the 1860-70s. Financial stratagems are explained in detail and I presume (given Zola's background as a journalist) they are well researched. What's interesting is that not much has changed. Ouch.

An astonishing novel of finance, politics, corruption, religion and sex. Zola's technical knowledge is remarkable. The chief character is complex and therefore we regard him with ambivalence. Really essential notes; and a superlative translation.

A really good story about financial dealings of the time, how investors were seduced by greed, how the smaller investors fared and the manipulation of the market.Most exciting read.

Beats Penguin hands down for quality of printing, paper & binding, all at lower price.