Plassans is the village where no.315 takes place, so we have moved back from Paris to Provence.
A priest is taken in as lodger by a bourgeois family, and gradually destroys them, and takes political control of the village, with the connivance of some powerful people (not specifically identified) in Paris. He is quite understated and initially regarded with suspicion by the townsfolk, but gradually assumes power.
Francois Mouret, the householder, seems a not very pleasant bourgeois, his wife Marthe (nee Rougon, the daughter of those at no.315) is quiet and initially downtrodden, but becomes religiously and sexually obsessed with the priest. Her husband is locked up in the local asylum, on suspicion of physically abusing her, and meanwhile the priest and his family take over control of the house, after his man has been elected mayor.
Spurned by the priest, Marthe tries to free her husband, who escapes in pursuit, returns to the house, finds it taken over by the priest family and burns the place down spectacularly.
There is an extraordinary scene towards the end where the bourgeois neighbours, concerned about the safety of their own adjacent properties, move their furniture outside and sit around in armchairs gossiping about the blaze, its possible causes and survivors (there are none).
A very long book, hard going at times, both the politics and which of the many townsfolk are individually important to the plot not easy to follow, but very different and worth a read!
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