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Plusieurs romans du cycle des Rougon-Macquart abordent les questions politiques et parlementaires, très importantes aux yeux de Zola mais encore peu étudiées. C’est au prisme du naturalisme que leur analyse doit être menée. En effet, Zola mêle réalité et fiction pour montrer la dérive de la IIIe République naissante et la nécessité de l’amender. Aborder cette question, en particulier par Son Excellence Eugène Rougon, permet de mieux comprendre la mission grandiose que Zola assigne au romancier.

Several novels of the Rougon-Macquart cycle and above all Son Excellence Eugène Rougon tackle political and parliamentary issues which mattered a great deal for Emile Zola but which have drawn little attention so far. Their analysis must be conducted in the view of naturalism. Indeed in this field as in others, Zola mingles reality and fiction so closely as to convey a precise idea in a particular context in which he writes. He intends to show the necessity to amend the political system of the newly born Third Republic which already seems to take a turn which he disapproves of. By tackling this issue, in particular in Son Excellence Eugene Rougon, which is both a paragon of parliamentary anti-novel and antiparliamentary novel, we can fully understand the great mission that Zola confers to the novelist.