Les Rougon-Macquart

The Other Wiki tells us that "Les Rougon-Macquart [le ʁu.ɡɔ̃ ma.kaʁ] is the collective title given to a cycle of twenty novels by French writer Émile Zola. Subtitled Histoire naturelle et sociale d'une famille sous le Second Empire (Natural and social history of a family under the Second Empire), it follows the lives of the members of the two titular branches of a fictional family living during the Second French Empire (1852–1870) and is one of the most prominent works of the French naturalism literary movement."

The novels, in the order that Émile Zola recommended reading them, are:


 * 1) La Fortune des Rougon (The Fortune of the Rougons) (1871)
 * 2) Son Excellence Eugène Rougon (His Excellency Eugène Rougon) (1876)
 * 3) La Curée (The Kill) (1871-2)
 * 4) L'Argent (Money) (1891)
 * 5) Le Rêve (The Dream) (1888)
 * 6) La Conquête de Plassans (The Conquest of Plassans) (1874)
 * 7) Pot-Bouille (Pot Luck) (1882)
 * 8) Au Bonheur des Dames (The Ladies Paradise/The Ladies' Delight) (1883)
 * 9) La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret  (The Sin of Abbé Mouret) (1875)
 * 10) Une page d'amour (A Love Story) (1878)
 * 11) Le Ventre de Paris  (The Belly of Paris) (1873)
 * 12) La joie de vivre (The Bright Side of Life) (1884)
 * 13) L'Assommoir  (The Drinking Den) (1877)
 * 14) L'Œuvre (The Masterpiece) (1886)
 * 15) La Bête humaine (The Beast Within) (1890)
 * 16) Germinal (1885)
 * 17) Nana (1880)
 * 18) La Terre (The Earth) (1887)
 * 19) La Débâcle (The Debacle) (1892)
 * 20) Le Docteur Pascal (Doctor Pascal) (1893)