The Dream

The Dream is the sixteenth volume in Zola's Rougon-Macquart series of novels of the Second Empire. In The Dream, a young girl is found huddled in a church doorway the morning after Christmas day. She is taken in and raised by a family of embroiderers, in happy innocence and far from the harsh realities of the world. With them she learns a trade, and loses herself in a dreamlike world of religious belief and hope. She dreams of marrying the most handsome, richest and most noble man, and living a life of idyllic happiness with him. But, can a foundling girl, unloved by her natural parents, really rise to such heights from her lowly place, and realise her fervent dreams of love, grace and goodness? Especially when so many near to her think her dreams can never, must never, come true?