Read "The Fortune of the Rougons" by Émile Zola online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Antoine Macquart had returned to Plassans after the fall of the first Napoleon. He had had the incredible good fortune to escape all the final murderous campaigns of the Empire. He had moved from barracks to barracks, dragging on his brutifying military life. This mode of existence brought his natural vices to full development. His idleness became deliberate; his intemperance, which brought him countless punishments, became, to his mind, a veritable religious duty. But that which above all made him the worst of scapegraces was the supercilious disdain which he entertained for the poor devils who had to earn their bread.
"I've got money waiting for me at home," he often said to his comrades; "when I've served my time, I shall be able to live like a gentleman."