"Doctor Pascal" by Émile Zola is a novel published in 1893. As the twentieth and final installment of the Rougon-Macquart series, it follows Pascal Rougon, a physician who has spent thirty years documenting his family's hereditary traits and developing experimental treatments. When his work sparks conflict with his niece Clotilde over science versus faith, their relationship takes an unexpected turn. As family secrets threaten to surface and Pascal's health deteriorates, the fate of his life's research hangs in the balance. (This is an automatically generated summary.)