The Fat and the Thin

"The Fat and the Thin" by Émile Zola is set in and around Les Halles, the enormous, busy central market of 19th-century Paris. Les Halles, rebuilt in cast iron and glass during the Second Empire was a landmark of modernity in the city, the wholesale and retail center of a thriving food industry. The protagonist is Florent, an escaped political prisoner mistakenly arrested after the French coup of 1851. He returns to his half-brother Quenu and his wife Lisa Quenu. They get him a job in the market as a fish inspector. After getting mixed up in an ineffectual socialist plot against the Empire, Florent is arrested and deported again.