"A Whole World of Things that Lived on Fat" ("The Belly of Paris" begins)

Emile Zola, The Belly of Paris: Reading Notes, Part 1

Zola’s “The Belly of Paris” shows consumerism’s –- and specifically food’s -– power as a kind of political soporific, drowning the middle class in prosperity and contentment.

An escapee from Devil’s Island, Florent Quenu, returns to Paris starving and, ironically, in the back of an overflowing cart of vegetables headed for Paris’ central market. He had been arrested as part of the popular uprising of 1851, though, in reality, he slept through the action, waking only when he was arrested. This presages Florent’s dreamy, impractical –- indeed, gentle -- side as a revolutionary.

In Florent’s absence, the modern market of Les Halles has been built, a vast cathedral of consumerism replacing the old medieval market. When Florent hears a “peal of bells,” it is from the market buildings, not from nearby St Eustace cathedral (which we later see is nearly deserted). “Florent looked at the huge market emerging from the shadows. . . . . [its buildings] seemed like some kind of oversize modern machine, a kind of steam engine with a cauldron.”

“These markets were like a huge central organ, furiously pulsating and pumping the blood of life though the city’s veins. The uproar from all the stocking and provisioning was like the chomping of the jaws of a colossus, at one end the cracking of whips of the big buyers driving their wagons to the local markets, at the other the plodding clogs of the poor women who sold lettuce door to door carrying off their baskets.’

The malnourished, bedraggled Florent takes refuge with the family of his half-brother Quenu, whom he raised as a boy. Quenu and his wife Lisa – known as “the Beautiful Lisa” have become highly prosperous – indeed, fantastically fat -- as proprietors of a charcutrerie located adjacent to the market. “They looked brimming with good health, solidly built. . . . . The two in their turn looked at Florent with that uneasiness that fleshy people always feel in the presence of someone who is extremely skinny. Even their cat was puffed-up with fat and stared at Florent suspiciously with dilated yellow eyes.”

The atmosphere of the kitchen behind the charcuterie: “A whole world of things that lived on fat. . . . Despite the excessive cleanliness, grease dominated; it oozed from the blue and white tiles, shone on the red floor tiles, gave a gray sheen to the stove, polished the chopping block to the glow of varnished oak. And in the vapor from the three continuously steaming pots of melting pork, the condensation, falling drop by drop, ensured that there was not, from floor to ceiling, so much as a nail that did not drip grease.”

One evening, in the kitchen, the morose Florent is urged to tell the story of his privation and escape from Devil’s Island as a kind of bedtime tale for Lisa and Quenu’s equally plump daughter. The little girl takes it as a fairy story, laughing at the idea one could like three days without eating.

Florent has befriended the artist Claude Lantier, who dreams and talks obsessively about the paintings he wishes to undertake, but never completes them. Lantier finds inspiration in the excess of the modern market but –- another thin man –- actually eats very little. “He found something extravagant, crazy, and sublime in all the vegetables.” But “it was obvious that it had not occured to Claude at that moment that all those beautiful objects were there for people to eat. He loved them for their colors.”

Florent is ill-suited to life in the environs of the market: “Florent felt out of place. He recognized the inept way in which he, a thin and artless man, had fallen into a world of fat people. He realized his presence was disturbing the entire neighborhood.” And he finds his principles fading in "the fatty repose of [their] sleepy kitchen."

Nevertheless, to please Lisa, he agrees to accept a job at the market as temporary inspector in the fish pavilion. Once introduced into the fish market, he falls in with The Beautiful Lisa's rival, the saltwater fish seller known as "The Beautiful Norman."