BONNEMORT, the sobriquet of Vincent Maheu.  His family had been miners for generations, and he himself had worked in the pit since he was eight years old.  After forty-five years of work underground he was given a post as fireman, and for five years worked each night at the Voreux pit for a wage of forty sous.  He suffered greatly from rheumatism, which eventually turned into a form of dropsy, while his mind became affected to some extent by the sufferings occasioned by the great strike which took place at Voreux and other neighbouring pits.  After the terrible scenes at Montsou, he could only sit in his chair before the fireless grate, with fixed and unseeing eyes, but in a sudden accession of madness he found strength to strangle Cecile Gregoire, who chanced to be left alone with him for a few moments.  Germinal.

BONNET.  See De Mareuil.

BORDENAVE, manager of the Theatre des Varietes.  He was a coarse man, with cynical views as to the stage, and cared nothing as to the means by which a popular success might be secured.  Though he was well aware that Nana could neither sing nor act, he saw that her beauty was of a type likely to attract the Parisian public, and accordingly gave her the chief part in the Blonde Venus.  It was he who showed H.R.H.  The Prince of Scots the honours of “behind the scenes.”  Nana.

BORGNE-DE-JOUY, one of the band of brigands which was led by Beau-Francois.  He betrayed his companions.  La Terre.

BOSC, an old actor at the Theatre des Varietes, where he played the part of Jupiter in the Blonde Venus, and the Duc de Beaurivage in the Petite Duchesse.  He had a good-natured but somewhat drunken appearance.  He treated women with disdain, and the idea that any man should trouble himself about them raised in him the only indignation of which he was capable.  Nana.

BOUCHARD (M.), head-clerk in the office of the Minister of Interior.  His house was the first thrown open to Eugene Rougon on his arrival in Paris.  Later on, Bouchard inherited his father’s property, and at fifty-four years of age married Adele Desvignes.  He was appointed head of a department after Rougon’s return to office.  Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

BOUCHARD (MADAME), wife of the preceding, was the daughter of a respectable family at Rambouillet.  M. Bouchard “had been anxious to marry a young lady from the provinces, because he made a point of having a steady wife.  However, the fair and adorable little Adele, with her innocent blue eyes, had in less than four years proved to be a great deal more than a mere flirt.”  Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

BOULAND(MADAME), the nurse who attended Madame Lazare Chanteau.  La Joie de Vivre.

BOUM, a horse which belonged to M. Gasc and ran in the Grand Prix de Paris.  Nana.

BOURDELAIS, an upper clerk in the office of the Minister of Finance.  Au Bonheur des Dames.

BOURDELAIS (MADAME) was a short, fair woman of thirty, with a delicate nose and sparkling eyes, who had married a chief clerk in the Treasury.  She was an old schoolfellow of Madame Desforges.  Belonging to a good middle-class family, she managed her household and three children with an excellent knowledge of practical life.  Au Bonheur des Dames.