L'Argent is a 1891 novel by Emile Zola, the eighteenth in his Les Rougon-Macquart series. mile Zola (April 2, 1840 - September 29, 1902) was an influential French novelist, the most important example of the literary school of naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalization of France. ... Les Rougon-Macquart is the collective title given to French novelist Emile Zolas greatest literary achievement, a monumental twenty-novel cycle about the exploits of various members of an extended family during the French Second Empire, from the coup détat of December 1851 which established Napoleon III as...

After a disastrous speculation, Aristide Saccard (who also appears in La Fortune des Rougon and La Curée) is forced to sell his mansion in the Parc Monceau and to cast about for means of creating a fresh fortune. By chance he becomes acquainted with Hamelin, an engineer whose residence in the East has suggested to him financial schemes which at once attract the attention of Saccard. With a view to financing these schemes, the Universal Bank is formed, and by force of advertising becomes immediately successful. Emboldened by success, Saccard launches into wild speculation, and the bank ultimately becomes insolvent, causing the ruin of thousands of depositors. The scandal is so serious that Saccard is forced to disappear from France and to take refuge in Belgium. La Fortune des Rougon, originally published in 1871, is the first novel in Emile Zolas monumental twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. ... La Curée (1871-2) is the second novel in Émile Zolas twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. ...

The book was intended to show the terrible effects of speculation and fraudulent company promotion, the culpable negligence of directors, and the impotency of the existing laws. It deals with the shady underworld of the financial system.

L'Argent is also a film by Robert Bresson. It is not based on Zola's novel. Robert Bresson (September 25, 1901–December 18, 1999) was a French film director and master of minimalism. ...