Pot-bouille #[nn]

Adapted from Émile Zola's sharp-eyed novel of Parisian bourgeois life, this Les Arènes BD volume by Cédric Simon and Éric Stalner opens with a striking cover: a well-dressed figure in a brown coat and top hat stands with his back to us, gazing up at the grand, warmly lit façade of a Haussmann-era apartment building. The composition perfectly captures the tension between the imposing respectability of the building and the solitary man contemplating it — a fitting visual overture to Zola's tale of appearances versus hidden realities. For fans of literary bande dessinée, this 2020 adaptation promises both period atmosphere and the novelist's celebrated social acuity.