. This is the last tree drawn by
Zola. It is part of the preparation work for the novel
Le Docteur Pascal. It contains "l'enfant inconnu" ("the unknown child"), the last child of the family, born from Clotilde and Pascal (after his death). As the last novel in the series, ties up the loose ends of the remaining family members' lives. It is the only
Rougon-Macquart novel that has all five generations of the family represented. Furthermore, it is the only novel in which a representative from each of the five generations dies: Tante Dide, Antoine Macquart, Pascal Rougon, Maxime Rougon/Saccard, and his son Charles. Adelaïde Fouque (Tante Dide), the family ancestress, has lived in an asylum for 21 years. She dies at the age of 105 after witnessing the death of her great-great-grandson Charles. Her eldest son Pierre Rougon, Félicité's husband, died two years before the novel opens. Her younger son Antoine Macquart is a drunk. He dies during the course of the novel when his body, soaked with alcohol from a lifetime of drinking, catches fire - a fictional instance of
spontaneous human combustion that may be compared to the death of Krook in
Bleak House. Here again Zola touches, in a horrific manner, on the consequences of the excessive consumption of alcohol, a theme common to the entire Rougon-Macquart cycle. Clotilde's brother Maxime lives in a Parisian mansion; he is suffering from
ataxia and is being preyed upon by his father Aristide Saccard (see ''
L'argent''), who wants to get his hands on Maxime's money. Maxime has an illegitimate son named Charles, a
hemophiliac, who bleeds to death on an afternoon visit to Tante Dide. Maxime too dies in the last pages of the novel. In addition, we learn about the following: • Eugène Rougon, Pascal's elder brother, is a deputy in the legislature where he continues to defend the fallen Emperor. • Aristide Saccard, Pascal's younger brother, exiled to
Belgium after the fall of the Banque Universelle (see ''
L'argent''), has returned to France. He is editor of a newspaper and is again building new and great businesses. After Maxime dies, he pockets his fortune for his own ends. • Victor, Aristide's illegitimate son, has disappeared into the streets of Paris and left no trace (see ''L'argent''). • Sidonie Rougon, Pascal's sister, after a life of impropriety, now lives in "nunlike austerity" as the financial mistress of a
home for unwed mothers. • Octave Mouret and his wife Denise () have three children, a newborn, a sickly daughter and a robust and healthy son. • Serge Mouret (), a parish priest, lives in religious seclusion with his sister Desirée. At the end of , his death is imminent. • Hélène Mouret and her husband Rambaud (''
Une page d'amour'') continue to live in
Marseille, childless. • Pauline Quenu (
La joie de vivre) still lives at Bonneville, raising Lazare's son Paul (her uncle Chanteau having died) while Lazare, now a widower, has gone to America. • Étienne Lantier (
Germinal) was arrested for taking part in the violence of the
Paris Commune and sent to
New Caledonia, where he is married and has a child. • Jean Macquart (
La terre,
La débâcle) has married and lives in a town near Plassans. He and his wife have two vital and healthy children, and they are expecting a third at the close of the series. The hope for any enduring strength of the family lies here, as with Clotilde and Pascal's son. ==English Translations==