A Love Episode

“It was always the same; other people gave up loving before she did. They got spoilt, or else they went away; in any case, they were partly to blame. Why did it happen so? She herself never changed; when she loved anyone, it was for life. She could not understand desertion; it was something so huge, so monstrous that the notion of it made her little heart break.””

— Emile Zola

“The whole of Paris was lit up. The tiny dancing flames had bespangled the sea of darkness from end to end of the horizon, and now, like millions of stars, they burned with a steady light in the serene summer night. There was no breath of wind to make them flicker as they hung there in space. They made the unseen city seem as vast as a firmament, reaching out into infinity.””

— Emile Zola

“Hélène slowly surveyed the room. In this respectable society, amongst these apparently decent middle-class people, were there none but faithless wives? With her strict provincial morality, she was amazed at the licensed promiscuity of Parisian life.””

— Emile Zola

“Hélène, her eyes once more raised and remote, was deep in a dream. She was Lady Rowena, she was in love, with the deep peaceful passion of a noble soul. This spring morning, the loveliness of the great city, the first wallflowers scenting her lap, had little by little melted her heart.””

— Emile Zola

“It all seemed a hollow sham now - that strict code, that conscientious virtue that condemned her to the sterile joys of pious women! No, no, she'd had enough of that; she wanted to live!””

— Emile Zola

“Mezarlık boştu,karların üzerinde ayak izlerinden başka bir şey kalmamıştı.Ölü Jeanne,Paris'in karşısında sonsuza kadar yalnız kalıyordu.””

— Emile Zola

“A iubi, a iubi! și acest cuvânt pe care nu-l pronunța, care vibra de la sine în ea, o mira și o făcea să surâdă.””

— Emile Zola

“Quand Hélène revint […] elle pensait que jamais ils ne s’étaient moins aimés que ce jour-là.””

— Emile Zola