Money
About this audiobook
Zola’s Money (L’Argent, 1891) shows the corrupting effect of untrammelled stock-market speculation. While some seek redemption through philanthropic and evangelical ventures, others – such as the main protagonist, Saccard – embrace their own avarice. Speculators illegally push up share prices so that ordinary citizens are feverishly swept up in an epidemic of small-scale investment. After unsustainable growth, there follows the inevitable crash, unleashing widespread misery and playing out against a backdrop of looming European conflict, colonialism, economic instability and political revolution. As Saccard tries to keep ahead of the financial authorities, he finds himself increasingly haunted by a serious crime from his past.
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About the author
Leighton Pugh trained at LAMDA, after studying Modern Languages at Queen’s College, Oxford. Radio work includes the plays Murder by the Book and Scenes from Provincial Life for BBC Radio 4, the voice of Heinrich von Kleist in the BBC Radio 3 documentary The Tragical Adventure of Heinrich von Kleist and readings for Words and Music: Dante (BBC Radio 3, 2022). Leighton’s theatre credits include Operation Epsilon (Southwark Playhouse, 2023) and The Lehman Trilogy for the National Theatre (Lyttelton, New York, West End and the 2024 International Tour). For Naxos AudioBooks he has recorded, among other things, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Zola’s Germinal, Nana and L’Assommoir, and featured in Walton’s The Compleat Angler.
