"Money (L'Argent)" by Émile Zola is a novel published in 1891. Set in the financial world of Second Empire Paris, it follows Aristide Saccard, a bankrupt speculator who establishes a bank to fund grand projects in the Middle East. Through illegal stock manipulation and relentless ambition, Saccard's enterprise soars to dizzying heights. The novel traces the effects of financial speculation across all social classes, from wealth and power to ruin and despair, as Saccard's empire races toward its inevitable collapse.