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 of a mining community in northern France
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.
Translated with an introduction by Roger Pearson in Penguin Classics
If you enjoyed Germinal, you might like Zola's Thérèse Raquin, also available in Penguin Classics.
- ISBN10 0140447423
- ISBN13 9780140447422
- Publish Date 29 January 2004 (first published 1 December 1956)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
- Imprint Penguin Classics
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 592
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780140447422