ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the proceeding chapters of this book. The book suggests that, as the final novel in the Rougon-Macquart series, Le Docteur Pascal offers a commentary not only on the Rougon-Macquart novels and Emile Zola's approach to them, but also on the various functions of clothes, costume and dress. The reading of Le Docteur Pascal locates the transgressive desire evoked by Henri Mitterand in the sustained references to certain items of ornamental clothing which abound throughout the novel. The reader and the writer of the Rougon-Macquart are united in the figure of Clotilde and, by extension, in the image of the lace which is associated with her throughout the novel. Lace comes to represent the authorial and readerly investment in the signifying power of clothing which has been the central concern of this study.
