Abstract: Émile Zola might appear severe about classical novels, but he was nonetheless inspired by Longus and his pastoral novel Daphnis et Chloé when conceiving the idyll of Silvère and Miette in La Fortune des Rougon. With the help of a detailed reading, which testifies to Zola’s remarkable knowledge of the Longus novel, it becomes apparent that the anthropological issues concerning virginity, the satisfaction of desire, and the question of gender are treated in a similar way in both works.
