The Flood

The Flood by Emile Zola is a short story about a man's realization that he is helpless against the forces of nature. The storyline is based on a real event set in June of 1875 in Toulouse, France. Louis Roubien, a 70-year-old patriarch of a little empire. Life is going well. He has a beautiful family and owns a prosperous farm near the Garonne River. But the Garonne River, after heavy rains, flooded the town killing hundreds. When cries of "The Garonne!, The Garonne"!, are heard throughout the town, the people barely have time to scramble to the upper floors of their homes. What happens is told in Zola's classic style and is vividly and brutally descriptive. Zola shows no mercy for the characters in this story or any of his stories for that matter. Zola's writing is brilliant as usual, it's easy to see why he is considered a major literary figure in the 19th century.