“The Career of the Rougons” is the first novel by Émile Zola from the “Rougon-Macquart” cycle, first published in 1871. Zola’s plan was to show, across the series of novels, how heredity and the surrounding environment affected the members of one family during the years of the Second Empire—the period of Napoleon III’s rule.
In the first novel of the series, Zola tells the beginning of the stories of the Rougon and Macquart families; he reveals the origins of nearly all the main members of these families, focusing mainly on Pierre Rougon and his half-brother Antoine Macquart. They get involved in an adventure to seize power in the city and oppose the republican insurgents.