Rougon branch
born Aristide Rougon
Aristide Saccard
Speculator, financier
Born Aristide Rougon, he changed his name to Saccard — a name that suggests 'sac d'or', a bag of gold — to shed his provincial origins and reinvent himself. He is the cycle's great capitalist: feverish, brilliant, amoral, and capable of rising from every ruin he creates. His first great fortune comes from speculating on property in the path of Haussmann's demolitions, buying condemned buildings at low prices just before the expropriations are announced. He treats his second wife Renée as he treats his properties — as an asset whose value he has calculated and whose eventual depreciation he has already planned for. His son Maxime he treats similarly. In L'Argent he returns for a second round of speculation, building the vast Universal Bank almost from nothing, inflating it to extraordinary heights, and crashing it in a ruin that takes thousands of investors with him. He escapes. He always escapes. Zola renders him with something close to fascinated horror: Saccard is destructive, dishonest, and ruinous to everyone around him, and yet there is an energy in him — a sheer animal vitality — that makes him one of the most compelling presences in the cycle.
Né Aristide Rougon, il se rebaptise Saccard pour effacer ses origines. Spéculateur génial et amoral, il fait sa première fortune sur les expropriations haussmanniennes, traite sa femme Renée comme un actif, puis reconstruit une immense banque dans L'Argent avant de la couler. Il sort toujours des ruines qu'il crée — personnage fascinant d'énergie destructrice.
Small, wiry, with quick gestures and bright, feverish eyes always scanning for the next opportunity. He has the electric restlessness of a man for whom stillness is physically painful.
Small, wiry, with quick gestures and bright, feverish eyes always scanning for the next opportunity. He has the electric restlessness of a man for whom stillness is physically painful.
Family & Relationships
- Child Pierre Rougon
- Child Félicité Rougon
- Sibling Eugène Rougon
- Sibling Dr Pascal Rougon
- Sibling Sidonie Rougon
- Sibling Marthe Rougon
- Spouse Renée Saccard — Second marriage — scandalous and unhappy.
- Parent Maxime Saccard
- Parent Victor Saccard — Illegitimate son, acknowledged late in L'Argent.
Engraving from the Vizetelly English translation of L'Argent (1894) — Public domain
Appears In
The Fortune of the Rougons
La Fortune des Rougon
minor
The Kill
La Curée
major
Money
L'Argent
major
Doctor Pascal
Le Docteur Pascal
minor
Details
- Branch
- Rougon
- Generation
- III