Émile Zola

During the Second Empire, Etienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, experiences the miserable life of the coal miners in northern France and enters the struggle between capital and labor. Reprint.

Germinal

Sarah Sammis

Kathy Luo

Brutal... this is the og Grapes of Wrath, except no grapes and all wrath

Sarah Escorsa

Encore un grand classique de Zola que je n'ai jamais aimé.

Germinal (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics)

Jeni Enjaian

I am a decided non-fan of Zola's work. While this book did not have the same distasteful elements as Nana, it had its own detractors. For one, there were far too many characters, none of which were defined even remotely well. They flit in and out of the narrative at various points and the reader is expected to remember all previously mentioned details as well as the character's role in the narrative. On top of all that, it's depressing. What is it with classics and depressing subject matters?
I don't recommend this book.

Considered by André Gide to be one of the ten greatest novels in the French language, Germinal is a brutal depiction of the poverty and wretchedness of a mining community in northern France under the second empire. At the centre of the novel is Etienne Lantier, a handsome 21 year-old mechanic, intelligent but with little education and a dangerous predisposition to murderous, alcoholic rage. Germinal tells the parallel story of Etienne's refusal to accept what he appears destined to become, and of the miners' difficult decision to strike in order to fight for a better standard of life.

Germinal

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