Emile Zola - The Flood (1880)
Novella – read via the Kindle app for the iPhone, May 2011
- 3 nods out of 5 -
The Flood is a brief story – not quite a novel, not really a novella, but perhaps more than a short story – that recounts the downfall of a happy and content French farmer. Printed in its original French as L’Inondation, the story’s beginning finds the seventy year old Louis surrounded by a full and supportive family, consisting of his brother and sister, his children and grandchildren; yet disaster strikes when the nearby river, the Garonne, floods.
The fairytale descends into a nightmare as the flood destroys hundreds of houses in the village. The waters keep rising during this pain-filled night as Louis watches all of his loved ones, one by one, succumbing to their awful fates; Zola taking a somewhat morbid fascination in the demise of the Roubien family.
Zola is a noted writer, and perhaps The Flood is not the best example of his skill and craft. However, its final image, of Louis weeping at the sight of the bodies of his granddaughter and husband-to-be is an enduring and haunting one. A reminder that in this life anything we hold can be lost in a moment.
