Bibliotheque Du Xixe Siecle
13 primary works • 14 total works
Book 18
Book 19
Emile Zola
The penultimate novel of the Rougon-Macquart cycle, La Debacle (1892) takes as its subject the dramatic events of the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune of 1870-1. During Zola's lifetime it was the bestselling of all his novels, praised by contemporaries for its epic sweep as well as for its attention to historical detail.
La Debacle seeks to explain why the Second Empire ended in a crushing military defeat and revolutionary violence. It focuses on ordinary soldiers, showing their bravery and suffering in the midst of circumstances they cannot control, and includes some of the most powerful descriptions Zola ever wrote. Zola skilfully integrates his narrative of events and the fictional lives of his characters to provide the finest account of this tragic chapter in the history of France. Often
compared to War and Peace, La Debacle has been described as a 'seminal' work for all modern depictions of war.
Book 20
Le Ventre de Paris - Oeuvres Completes - Les Rougon-Macquart, III
by Emile Zola
Book 21
Book 33
Book 34
Book 46
Book 48
Book 53
Book 55
Book 58
Book 68
Book 70
I(1863-70)