“My God, my God! He is dead!”
What makes Émile Zola's tale all the more compelling is the fact the first-person narrator is Olivier Becaille himself. Oh, yes, poor Olivier can not move a muscle, he can not utter a word or syllable but Olivier has retained full awareness, partial sight and can hear the voices and sounds around him.
Olivier reasons, "I must have fallen into one of those cataleptic states that I had read of." So when Olivier hears his dear wife Marguerite cry out that he is dead, he's absolutely helpless to let her know he's not dead, far from it, he's still very much alive.
Olivier lies in a bed in a small room, his passing, so called, taking place at a cheap lodginghouse of the Rue Dauphine in Paris.
We're right there with Olivier, every step of the way, from Marguerite and others discussing his death at the lodginghouse, the funeral preparations, the funeral procession to Olivier finally being buried alive.
Woops. Did I say "finally?" I take it back. Oliver's burial is anything but final. Quite the contrary, it's at this juncture the drama of Zola's tale becomes even more deadly serious. Woops again. Being buried alive is no punning matter. However, I dare not say too much so as to spoil for a reader.
Originally published in 1884, The Death of Olivier Becaille is a small masterpiece - small in length, that is, being 30 pages. As a work of Naturalism, Émile Zola's tale is huge, containing ferocious bites of social commentary on at least two counts.
First, the author's precision in his portrayal of character, among their number: Marguerite, an elderly woman who occupies a room on the same floor, the elderly woman's child of ten, a harried doctor and wealthy Simoneau, a dashing gentleman who quickly develops a strong emotional bond with Marguerite. Additionally, all of the characters' conversations and interactions, mostly centered on the various practical considerations now that Marguerite's husband is dead and requires burial.
Secondly, Olivier's mindset is completely and thoroughly materialist. At every single stage of his "death" and even when he is buried alive in a Catholic cemetery, not once does our young man mention religion or the church, Christianity or Catholicism, heaven, paradise or the prospect of a Christian afterlife. Well, my goodness, Zola's tale underscores there's little doubt we most definitely inhabit a secular, modern world.
Some may call this Zola tale shocking, macabre, horrid, hideous, frightening or terms much more grisly. But however you categorize The Death of Olivier Becaille, one thing is certain - it's unforgettable. Can be read online. Link: https://spensabayalibrary.files.wordp...
Émile Zola, 1840-1902, French author identified with the school of Naturalism in literature
"Romanticism will race a reader through the streets of a city slum; Realism will walk a reader through the streets of a city slum; Naturalism will drag a reader through the streets of a city slum." - I vividly recall my high school world literature teacher saying this.
"I cannot tell if others have endured the same torture; I only know that my own life was made a torment by it. Death ever rose between me and all I loved; I can remember how the thought of it poisoned the happiest moments I spent with Marguerite. During the first months of our married life, when she lay sleeping by my side and I dreamed of a fair future for her and with her, the foreboding of some fatal separation dashed my hopes aside and embittered my delights. Perhaps we should be parted on the morrow—nay, perhaps in an hour's time. Then utter discouragement assailed me; I wondered what the bliss of being united availed me if it were to end in so cruel a disruption." - Émile Zola, The Death of Olivier Becaille
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