Émile Zola

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Briefly referenced as a comparison for Mary Jane Kelly's stories about her life as a high-class courtesan, noting it was a novel about a Parisian courtesan that people at the time would have been familiar with.

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Described by one host as 'one of my favourite books,' published in 1890, the same year Conrad went to the Congo. About a Parisian train driver who is a sex-crazed homicidal maniac, it illustrates the late Victorian cultural theme that evil lurks within even the most banal person — a theme central to Heart of Darkness.

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Dominic mentions having 'this mad idea of reading all Zola's Rougon-Macquart sequence' when discussing the Paris of classic 19th century French novels

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Dominic references this novel when expressing his preference for late 19th century Paris over the Paris of Proust and Picasso

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Mentioned as Zola writing about Franco-Prussian War, events 20-30 years before