Lisa Quenu (nee Macquart)

Lisa first appears in La fortune des Rougons as the daughter of Antoine Macquart and Josephine Gauvadan(pp130-133). She was in effect adopted at the age of seven by the postmistress in Plassans. When her husband died in 1839 she moved to Paris taking Lisa with her.
We next meet Lisa in Le ventre de Paris when she is taken on by Gradelle to work in the charcuterie on the death of the postmistress. It is here she meets and falls in love with Quenu. They marry on the death of Gradelle and take over the charcuterie. She is very shrewd and looks after the money they inherit and the business dealings in the shop. She is also beautiful and a rival in the markets to the belle Normande.
She is unsettled by the return of her brother in law, Florent, and this forms the backcloth against which the novel unfolds.
She has a child who was born in 1851 called Pauline.
She is mentioned briefly in L'Assommoir at the time Gervaise is getting married, but there is no record of the two sisters ever meeting in Paris.