I wish to explain how a family, a small group of human beings, conductsitself in a given social system after blossoming forth and giving birthto ten or twenty members, who, though they may appear, at the firstglance, profoundly dissimilar one from the other, are, as analysisdemonstrates, most closely linked together from the point of view ofaffinity. Heredity, like gravity, has its laws.
By resolving the duplex question of temperament and environment, I shallendeavour to discover and follow the thread of connection which leadsmathematically from one man to another. And when I have possession ofevery thread, and hold a complete social group in my hands, I shallshow this group at work, participating in an historical period; I shalldepict it in action, with all its varied energies, and I shall analyseboth the will power of each member, and the general tendency of thewhole.
The great characteristic of the Rougon-Macquarts, the group or familywhich I propose to study, is their ravenous appetite, the greatoutburst of our age which rushes upon enjoyment. Physiologically theRougon-Macquarts represent the slow succession of accidents pertainingto the nerves or the blood, which befall a race after the first organiclesion, and, according to environment, determine in each individualmember of the race those feelings, desires and passions--briefly, allthe natural and instinctive manifestations peculiar to humanity--whoseoutcome assumes the conventional name of virtue or vice. Historicallythe Rougon-Macquarts proceed from the masses, radiate throughout thewhole of contemporary society, and ascend to all sorts of positions bythe force of that impulsion of essentially modern origin, which sets thelower classes marching through the social system. And thus the dramas oftheir individual lives recount the story of the Second Empire, from theambuscade of the Coup d'Etat to the treachery of Sedan.
For three years I had been collecting the necessary documents for thislong work, and the present volume was even written, when the fall of theBonapartes, which I needed artistically, and with, as if by fate, Iever found at the end of the drama, without daring to hope that itwould prove so near at hand, suddenly occurred and furnished me withthe terrible but necessary denouement for my work. My scheme is, atthis date, completed; the circle in which my characters will revolveis perfected; and my work becomes a picture of a departed reign, of astrange period of human madness and shame.
This work, which will comprise several episodes, is therefore, inmy mind, the natural and social history of a family under the SecondEmpire. And the first episode, here called "The Fortune of the Rougons,"should scientifically be entitled "The Origin."