The Conquest of Plassans (1874), the fourth novel in Émile Zola's Rougon-Macquart series, is set in the fictional Provençal town of Plassans during the early Second Empire. The peaceful life of François Mouret and his wife Marthe is disrupted when the enigmatic Abbé Faujas becomes their lodger. Through cunning and religious manipulation, the priest gradually dominates the household and secretly works to deliver the town's politics to the Bonapartist regime and the Church. While Marthe falls increasingly under his influence, François descends into paranoia and is confined to an asylum. The novel culminates tragically when the escaped François returns, setting the house ablaze and killing himself, Marthe, and Faujas.
