'… much rhetorical brilliance … the book demonstrates an impressive level of critical sophistication, skilfully anatomizing, for example, the parodic elements inherent in novels of adultery which rework the cycle of duplicity and disillusion.' The Times Literary Supplement

• Acknowledgements; Introduction: fin de siècle, fin de famille?; Part I. The Promiscuous Narrative of 'Pot-Bouille': 1. Demon lover or erotic atheist?; 2. The rhythms of performance; Part II. Pleasures and Fears of Paternity: Maupassant and Zola: 3. Bel-Ami: fantasies of seduction and colonization; 4. Incest in Les Rougon-Macquart; Part III. The Blindness of Passions: Huysmans, Hennique and Zola: 5. The conquest of privacy in A Rebours; 6. Painting, politics and architecture; Coda: Bourget's Un Divorce and the 'honnête femme'; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

'… much rhetorical brilliance … the book demonstrates an impressive level of critical sophistication, skilfully anatomizing, for example, the parodic elements inherent in novels of adultery which rework the cycle of duplicity and disillusion.' The Times Literary Supplement

• Acknowledgements; Introduction: fin de siècle, fin de famille?; Part I. The Promiscuous Narrative of 'Pot-Bouille': 1. Demon lover or erotic atheist?; 2. The rhythms of performance; Part II. Pleasures and Fears of Paternity: Maupassant and Zola: 3. Bel-Ami: fantasies of seduction and colonization; 4. Incest in Les Rougon-Macquart; Part III. The Blindness of Passions: Huysmans, Hennique and Zola: 5. The conquest of privacy in A Rebours; 6. Painting, politics and architecture; Coda: Bourget's Un Divorce and the 'honnête femme'; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

'… much rhetorical brilliance … the book demonstrates an impressive level of critical sophistication, skilfully anatomizing, for example, the parodic elements inherent in novels of adultery which rework the cycle of duplicity and disillusion.' The Times Literary Supplement

• Acknowledgements; Introduction: fin de siècle, fin de famille?; Part I. The Promiscuous Narrative of 'Pot-Bouille': 1. Demon lover or erotic atheist?; 2. The rhythms of performance; Part II. Pleasures and Fears of Paternity: Maupassant and Zola: 3. Bel-Ami: fantasies of seduction and colonization; 4. Incest in Les Rougon-Macquart; Part III. The Blindness of Passions: Huysmans, Hennique and Zola: 5. The conquest of privacy in A Rebours; 6. Painting, politics and architecture; Coda: Bourget's Un Divorce and the 'honnête femme'; Notes; Bibliography; Index.