Doctor Pascal
1893
''Doctor Pascal,'' published in 1893, is the final novel in Émile Zola's Rougon-Macquart series. It follows Dr. Pascal Rougon, an aging physician consumed by his scientific pursuits in heredity, as he navigates complex family dynamics with his niece Clotilde and their housekeeper Martine. The novel explores themes of scientific ambition, family legacy, and the conflict between faith and rationalism, ultimately serving as a reflective epilogue on the choices and sacrifices made in the name of progress.
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“Essentially, Doctor Pascal's only faith was his faith in life. Life was the unique manifestation of the divine. Life was God, the great motive power, the soul of the universe. And the sole instrument of life was heredity, which made the world; so that if one could only understand it, master it and make it do one's bidding, one could remake the world at will.””
— Emile Zola
“Yes! live life with every fibre of one's being, surrender oneself to it, with no thoughts of rebellion, without deluding oneself that one can improve it and render it painless; all this was revealed to the dying man, as the only courageous and wise attitude possible for a man of science.””
— Emile Zola
“Her son would be incomparably handsome, good and powerful. He would be the expected Messiah; it is fortunate for humanity that all mothers have this pathetic faith, without it mankind would not have the ever-renascent strength to go on living.””
— Emile Zola
“And, in the warm silence, in the peaceful solitude of the study, Clotilde smiled down at the baby who was still sucking - his little arm in the air, pointing upwards, a symbol of hope and life.””
— Emile Zola
“You have to live for the effort of living, to leave a stone that will one day go to shape some far-off and mysterious edifice; and the only peace possible, on this earth, lies in the joy of having made such an effort.””
— Emile Zola
