(September) First of a series of articles for Le Figaro. (17 October) Death of his mother. (December) The Experimental Novel.

1882

(April) Pot Luck (Pot-Bouille). (3 September) Death of Turgenev.

1883

(13 February) Death of Wagner. (March) The Ladies’ Paradise (Au Bonheur des Dames). (30 April) Death of Manet.

1884

(March) La Joie de vivre. Preface to catalogue of Manet exhibition.

1885

(March) Germinal. (12 May) Begins writing The Masterpiece (L’Œuvre). (22 May) Death of Victor Hugo. (23 December) First instalment of The Masterpiece appears in Le Gil Blas.

1886

(27 March) Final instalment of The Masterpiece, which is published in book form in April.

1887

(18 August) Denounced as an onanistic pornographer in the Manifesto of the Five in Le Figaro. (November) Earth.

1888

(October) The Dream. Jeanne Rozerot becomes his mistress.

1889

(20 September) Birth of Denise, daughter of Zola and Jeanne.

1890

(March) The Beast in Man.

1891

(March) Money. (April) Elected President of the Société des Gens de Lettres. (25 September) Birth of Jacques, son of Zola and Jeanne.

1892

(June) La Débâcle.

1893

(July) Doctor Pascal, the last of the Rougon-Macquart novels. Fêted on visit to London.

1894

(August) Lourdes, the first novel of the trilogy Three Cities. (22 December) Dreyfus found guilty by a court martial.

1896

(May) Rome.

1898

(13 January) ‘J’accuse’, his article in defence of Dreyfus, published in L’Aurore. (21 February) Found guilty of libelling the Minister of War and given the maximum sentence of one year’s imprisonment and a fine of 3,000 francs. Appeal for retrial granted on a technicality. (March) Paris. (23 May) Retrial delayed. (18 July) Leaves for England instead of attending court.

1899

(4 June) Returns to France. (October) Fecundity, the first of his Four Gospels.

1901

(May) Toil, the second ‘Gospel’.

1902

(29 September) Dies of fumes from his bedroom fire, the chimney having been capped either by accident or anti-Dreyfusard design. Wife survives. (5 October) Public funeral.

1903

(March) Truth, the third ‘Gospel’, published posthumously. Justice was to be the fourth.

1908

(4 June) Remains transferred to the Panthéon.

MONEY

CHAPTER I

THE clock on the Bourse* had just struck eleven when Saccard walked into Champeaux’s,* into the white and gold dining-room, with its two tall windows looking out over the square. He cast his eye over the rows of little tables, where busy customers were huddled elbow to elbow, and he seemed surprised not to see the face he was looking for.

As a waiter went bustling by, loaded with dishes, he asked:

‘Tell me, hasn’t Monsieur Huret come in?’

‘No sir, not yet.’

So Saccard made up his mind and sat down at a window-table that a customer was just leaving. He thought he was probably late, and while the tablecloth was being changed, he started to look outside, peering at the passers-by on the pavement. Even when the table had been relaid for him, he didn’t order straight away, but waited a while, gazing out at the square, so pretty on this bright sunny day in early May.* At this time of day, when everybody was having lunch, it was almost deserted. Under the fresh green of the chestnut trees the benches were all empty, and along the railings where the carriages pull up, a line of cabs stretched from one end to the other, and the Bastille omnibus stopped at the kiosk on the corner of the garden without a single passenger getting on or off. The sun was beating down and the great monument of the Bourse was bathed in sunshine, with its colonnade, its two statues and its imposing flight of steps, at the top of which there was, as yet, just an army of chairs, drawn up in neat ranks.

But turning round, Saccard recognized Mazaud, the stockbroker,* at the table next to his.