Germinal (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Zola, Émile

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140447423 ISBN 13: 9780140447422

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2004

Synopsis

Considered by André Gide to be one of the ten greatest novels in the French language, Émile Zola's Germinal is a brutal depiction of the poverty and wretchedness of a mining community in northern France, translated with an introduction by Roger Pearson in Penguin Classics.

Étienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, is a clever but uneducated young man with a dangerous temper. Compelled to take a back-breakin job at Le Voreux mine when he cannot get other work, he discovers that his fellow miners are ill, hungry and in debt, unable to feed and clothe their families. When conditions in the mining community deteriorate even further, Lantier finds himself leading a strike that could mean starvation or salvation for all. The thirteenth novel in Zola's great Rougon-Macquart sequence, Germinal expresses outrage at the exploitation of the many by the few, but also shows humanity's capacity for compassion and hope.

Roger Pearson's lively and modern new translation is accompanied by an introduction that examines the social and political background to Zola's masterpiece, in particular the changing relationship between labour and capital. This edition also contains a further reading list and filmography, chronology, notes and glossary.

Emile Zola (1840-1902) was the leading figure in the French school of naturalistic fiction. His principal work, Les Rougon-Macquart, is a panorama of mid-19th century French life, in a cycle of 20 novels which Zola wrote over a period of 22 years, including Au Bonheur des Dames (1883), The Beast Within (1890), Nana (1880), and The Drinking Den (1877).

If you enjoyed Germinal, you might like Zola's Thérèse Raquin, also available in Penguin Classics.

About this title

Review

"[Germinal] made me realize that when books are considered 'classics, ' most of the time they're actually very readable and exciting." --Daniel Radcliffe

Synopsis

Considered by Andre 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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0140447423
• ISBN 13: 9780140447422
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 592