Pot-Bouille Œuvres complètes - Les Rougon-Macquart, X

In Pot-Bouille, Emile Zola hits back at the morality of social convention, laying bare the hypocrisy discovered by the young Octave Mouret in the course of his attempts at seduction. Evident in this is the jubilatory inclination on the part of this naturalist novelist to indulge in caricature, together with his sharp sense of irony.