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RESEARCH PRODUCT

"Le jeu est tellement un vice humain..." : le jeu et les joueurs dans les chroniques zoliennes

subject

description

Émile Zola’s journalistic production, such as chronicles, reportages, polemic texts, etc., was created during a few decades parallelly to his fictional writings. Its subject is often social leisure, including gambling, officially banned in France of the Second Empire but practiced secretly by the social elites and the middle class. Zola describes some places where clandestine gambling games are organized, as well as the gamblers’ behavior. Considering the entire Second Empire regime as a huge gambling house, the author underlines the role of horse racing and stock exchange operations as legał ways of wagering. Zolas particular sense of humor contributes to his chronicles’ documentary and anthropological value.