• A compelling new translation of one of Zola's most powerful novels, the fifth work in his famous Rougon-Macquart series that traces the fortunes of a family over five generations.
• Excellent new translation by Valerie Minogue, well known as the President of the Emile Zola Society in London and for her translation of Zola's L'Argent (Money) for Oxford World's Classics.
• Includes a full contextualizing introduction and helpful historical notes.
• The text used for the translation is the admirably accurate and thoroughly researched text of the Pléiade edition, scrupulously annotated by Henri Mitterand.
• Includes an up-to-date bibliography and chronology of the author.

    
'I really don't understand how people can blame a priest so much, when he strays from the path.'
   
The Sin of Abbé Mouret tells the compelling story of the young priest Serge Mouret. Striving after spiritual purity and sanctity, he lives a life of constant prayer, but his neglect of all physical needs leads to serious illness, followed by amnesia. No longer knowing he is a priest, he falls in love with his nurse Albine. Together, like a latter-day Adam and Eve, they roam through an Eden-like garden called the 'Paradou', seeking a forbidden tree in whose shade they will make love. Zola memorably shows their gradual awakening to sexuality, and his poetic descriptions of the luxuriant and beautiful Paradou create a lyrical celebration of Nature. When Serge regains his memory and recalls his priestly vows, anguish inevitably follows.
   
The whole story, with its numerous biblical parallels, becomes a poetic reworking of the Fall of Man and a questioning of the very meaning of innocence and sin. Zola explores the conflict between Church and Nature, the sterility of the Church and the fertility of Nature. This new translation includes a wide-ranging and helpful introduction and explanatory notes.