Le parcours de l’abbé Pierre

Abstract

This article is about Émile Zola’s Three Cities: Lourdes (1894), Rome (1896) and Paris (1898), in which the author describes the eponymous cities through the eyes of a Catholic priest. This trilogy is not only about Pierre’s journeys and his wanderings inside the three cities, but it also reveals his spiritual, sentimental, and intellectual path. The protagonist is marked by two influences: charity and the need for truth and justice. Guillaume, the priest’s scientist brother and his family members, in time become his role models. Women have an important role in this journey. First of all, there are two devout women: Pierre’s mother, who made him choose the clerical state, and Marie, his platonic childhood love. Also, two independent women help him find his real vocation. These are Madame Leroi, the grandmother of his nephews, and Marie, an educated young girl with whom Pierre will fall in love. The abbot finally decides to leave the cassock. This cycle, which seems to be forgotten nowadays, deserves to be accepted among the great works of Zola because it is based on accurate documentation and it displays distinguished aesthetic qualities. Furthermore, Pierre and Marie’s children will be the protagonists of the author’s final cycle of novels, Les Quatre Évangiles (The Four Gospels).