“Scum” (1882) is Émile Zola’s tenth novel in the Rougon-Macquart cycle, devoted to representatives of one family who lived during the Second Empire—the period of Napoleon III’s dictatorship. Octave Mouret comes to Paris from Plassans. He is looking for a mistress who will help him rise socially. Gradually he gets to know most of the locals, who, guided by the rules of decency, enter into extramarital relationships, keep mistresses, marry for convenience, quarrel over inheritance, and abandon their children. The title of the novel refers precisely to this “kitchen”…