Doctor Pascal

Doctor Pascal (French: Le Docteur Pascal ) is a novel by the writer Émile Zola. He is the twentieth and final volume of the Rougon - Macquart cycle. The first edition appeared in June 1893 in Charpentier. Central themes are Zola's genetic theory of heredity and the tension between religion and science. The story begins in 1872. Thus, it is the only novel that plays after the fall of Napoleon III. The title character is Dr. Pascal was born in 1813 son of Pierre and Félicité Rougon, which are known to the reader from the first volume of The Luck of the Rougon family.

Action

The physician Dr. Pascal lives and practices in the fictional town Plassans for 30 years. All his life he has collected material on the members of his family to an example to investigate the laws of genetic inheritance, including inherited properties and diseases. Dr. Pascal has developed a serum that can cure nervous diseases and tuberculosis.

Its beautiful niece Clotilde seen in Pascal's work a denial of God's omnipotence. She urges him to destroy the collected documents, which he refuses. He shows and explains Clotilde his family records. It recognizes the value of the documents. Clotilde and Pascal begin a love affair. This illegitimate relationship encounters the rejection of Félicité Pascal's mother. These wishes also to destroy the family acts in order to keep the family honor pure.

As Clotilde's brother Maxime in Paris severe case ataxia, he asks his sister to come to him and take care of him. Félicité support this effort to remove Clotilde and so easier to find a way to destroy the papers. The banker, the Pascal has entrusted his savings, flees with the money. Since the doctor is now almost penniless and Clotilde wants to spare a life of poverty, he brings them to meet the brother's request. Later can be salvaged from the bankrupt still a large sum for Pascal.

At this point it is already seriously ill. From a letter to his niece he finds out that she is expecting a child by him. He calls them back, but dies shortly before their arrival. While Clotilde asleep on his deathbed, throw Félicité and Pascal's servant Martine family documentation and other works of Pascal into the fire and destroyed so that his entire scientific work. A few months later Clotilde has a healthy baby son. The baby clothes stored in the closet, in the previously lay the papers.

On the edge of the readers learns of the fate of other family members.

• Adelaide's eldest son and husband Félicités, Pierre Rougon burns, two days before the death of his mother in a drunken stupor.
• Charles, the illegitimate son of Maxime dies during a visit to Tane Dide A day before her death of a cerebral hemorrhage.
• Adelaïde Fouque, called Aunt Dide, dies after she spent 21 years in mental derangement in the madhouse, at the age of 105 years.
• Eugène Rougon, Pascal's older brother, deputy and again defended the deposed Emperor
• Aristide Saccard, Pascal's younger brother, went into exile in Belgium after the money mentioned in the novel collapse of the Universal Bank. After an amnesty he returned to France. In the action period, he is editor of a major newspaper and working on a new career.
• Victor, the illegitimate son of Aristide remains disappeared.
• Sidonie Rougon, Pascal's sister, came after a long poverty to money. It finances a home for unwed mothers.
• Octave Mouret, the owner of the department store paradise of the ladies and his wife, the former shop assistant Denise, have two children: a sickly daughter and a healthy and vigorous son.
• Serge Mouret, known from The Sin of Father Mouret, lives with his sister Desirée in religious seclusion. At the end of the tape, his death is imminent.
• Hélène Mouret and her husband Rambaud from the novel A leaf love live childless in Marseille.
• Pauline Quenu from the novel The joy of living is still living in Bonneville, where it rears Lazare's son Paul. Her uncle Chanteau has since died. Lazare is widowed emigrated to America.
• Étienne Lantier from the novel Germinal has been sentenced to exile in New Caledonia due to his participation in the Paris Commune. There he married, according to unconfirmed sources, and have a daughter.
• Jean Macquart, the protagonist in the novels The Earth and The collapse has married. He lives in a town not far from Plassans. He and his wife have two healthy and lively children. At the end of the tape they are expecting a third child.

The story concludes with the hope that with the new-born children a healthy family branch will arise.