“His Excellency Eugène Rougon” (1876) – the sixth novel by Émile Zola in the “Rougon-Macquart” series, devoted to members of one family who lived during the Second Empire, the era of Napoleon III’s dictatorship.
In this work, as Zola puts it himself, he delves into the “political backroom” of the Second Empire. The characters are people close to power: ministers, deputies, high-ranking officials. The action takes place from 1856 to 1861.