| Doctor Pascal Contributor(s): Serrano, Mary J. (Translator), Zola, Emile (Author) |
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ISBN: 1534796428 ISBN-13: 9781534796423 Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform OUR PRICE: $11.35 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: June 2016 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Literary - Fiction | Classics - Fiction | Family Life - General |
| Dewey: FIC |
| Physical Information: 0.47" H x 7.01" W x 10" (0.87 lbs) 222 pages |
| Themes: - Topical - Family |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Doctor Pascal By Emile Zola Translated by Mary J. Serrano CLASSIC BOOKS Pascal, a physician in Plassans for 30 years, has spent his life cataloging and chronicling the lives of his family based on his theories of heredity. Pascal believes that everyone's physical and mental health and development can be classified based on the interplay between innateness (reproduction of characteristics based in difference) and heredity (reproduction based in similarity). Using his own family as a case study, Pascal classifies the 30 descendants of his grandmother Adelaide Fouque (Tante Dide) based on this model. Pascal has developed a serum he hopes will cure hereditary and nervous diseases (including consumption) and improve if not prolong life. His niece Clotilde sees Pascal's work as denying the omnipotence of God and as a prideful attempt to comprehend the unknowable. She encourages him to destroy his work, but he refuses. (Like other members of the family, Pascal is somewhat obsessive in the pursuit of his passion.) Pascal's explains his goal as a scientist as laying the groundwork for happiness and peace by seeking and uncovering the truth, which he believes lies in the science of heredity. After he shows her the Rougon-Macquart family tree and demonstrates his refusal to sugarcoat the family's acts, Clotilde begins to agree with him. Her love for him solidifies her faith in his theories and his lifelong work. |