"The Fortune of the Rougons" by Émile Zola is a novel published in 1871. It opens the twenty-volume Rougon-Macquart series, tracing two branches of a family descended from the troubled Adelaide Fouque. Against the backdrop of Napoleon III's 1851 coup d'état in provincial France, the ambitious Rougons scheme for wealth and status while their working-class Macquart relatives struggle to survive. A young couple's idealistic romance collides with political upheaval as family destinies unfold.
Translation of La fortune des Rougon. The Fortune of the Rougons is the first in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series of novels. Wikipedia page about this book: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Fortune_des_Rougon