Pot Luck

This translation of Zola's most acerbic social satire, by Brian Nelson, captures the directness and robustness of Zola's language and restores the omissions of earlier abridged versions.

Pot Luck, Zola's most acerbic satire, describes daily life in a newly constructed block of flats in late nineteenth-century Paris. In examining the contradictions that pervade bourgeois life, Zola reveals a multitude of betrayals and depicts a veritable 'melting pot' of moral and sexual degeneracy. This new translation captures the robustness of Zola's language and restores the omissions of earlier abridged versions.