Germinal
Emile Zola
,
Roger Pearson
(Translator)
4.19
37,825 ratings2,136 reviews
The thirteenth novel in Émile 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.
Etienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, is a clever but uneducated young man with a dangerous temper. Forced to take a back-breaking job at Le Voreux mine when he cannot get other work, he discovers that his fellow miners are ill, hungry, in debt, and 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.
•New translation
• Includes introduction, suggestions for further reading, filmography, chronology, explanatory notes, and glossary
Genres
Classics
Fiction
France
French Literature
Literature
Historical Fiction
19th Century
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592 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1885
Original title
Germinal
Series
Les Rougon-Macquart (#13) , Les Rougon-Macquart (#16)
Characters
Étienne Lantier , Father Bonnemort , Toussaint Maheu , Constance Maheude , Zacharie Maheu , Catherine Maheu , Jeanlin Maheu , Alzire Maheu , Léonore Maheu , Chaval , Souvarine , Rasseneur , Paul Négrel , Cécile Grégoire , Madame Grégoire , Monsieur Grégoire , Monsieur Hennebeau , Deneulin , Madame Hennebeau , Pluchart , Maigrat
This edition
Format
592 pages, Paperback
Published
May 25, 2004 by Penguin Classics
ISBN
9780140447422 (ISBN10: 0140447423)
Language
English
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Emile Zola
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Émile François Zola was an influential French novelist, the most important example of the literary school of naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalization of France.
More than half of Zola's novels were part of a set of 20 books collectively known as Les Rougon-Macquart. Unlike Balzac who in the midst of his literary career resynthesized his work into La Comédie Humaine, Zola from the start at the age of 28 had thought of the complete layout of the series. Set in France's Second Empire, the series traces the "environmental" influences of violence, alcohol and prostitution which became more prevalent during the second wave of the Industrial Revolution. The series examines two branches of a family: the respectable (that is, legitimate) Rougons and the disreputable (illegitimate) Macquarts for five generations.
As he described his plans for the series, "I want to portray, at the outset of a century of liberty and truth, a family that cannot restrain itself in its rush to possess all the good things that progress is making available and is derailed by its own momentum, the fatal convulsions that accompany the birth of a new world."
Although Zola and Cézanne were friends from childhood, they broke in later life over Zola's fictionalized depiction of Cézanne and the Bohemian life of painters in his novel L'Œuvre (The Masterpiece, 1886).
From 1877 with the publication of L'Assommoir, Émile Zola became wealthy, he was better paid than Victor Hugo, for example. He became a figurehead among the literary bourgeoisie and organized cultural dinners with Guy de Maupassant, Joris-Karl Huysmans and other writers at his luxurious villa in Medan near Paris after 1880. Germinal in 1885, then the three 'cities', Lourdes in 1894, Rome in 1896 and Paris in 1897, established Zola as a successful author.
The self-proclaimed leader of French naturalism, Zola's works inspired operas such as those of Gustave Charpentier, notably Louise in the 1890s. His works, inspired by the concepts of heredity (Claude Bernard), social manichaeism and idealistic socialism, resonate with those of Nadar, Manet and subsequently Flaubert.
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Ahmad Sharabiani
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August 14, 2021
(Books 824 from 1001 books) - Germinal (Les Rougon-Macquart #13), Émile Zola
Germinal was written between April 1884 and January 1885.
Often considered Zola's masterpiece and one of the most significant novels in the French tradition, the novel – an uncompromisingly harsh and realistic story of a coalminers' strike in northern France in the 1860's - has been published and translated in over one hundred countries and has additionally inspired five film adaptations and two television productions.
Title: "Germinal"; Author: Emil Zola; Publications (Amir Kabir, Nilofar, Farzan, Gutenberg, Golshai) French literature; Date of first reading: June 1977 AD
Title: Germinal; Author: Emil Zola; Translator: Soroush Habibi; Tehran, Amir Kabir, pocket books, first edition 1356, second edition 1357; on 537 pages; Another edition, Tehran, Nilofar, third edition 2014; on 552 pages; 4th edition 2016; ISBN 9644482611; 5th edition 2018; ISBN 9789644482648; The subject of stories by French authors - 19th century
Title: Germinal; Author: Emil Zola; Translator: Nona Hejri; Editor M. Azadeh; Tehran, Farzan, first edition 1363, on 555 pages; Another edition, Tehran, Gutenberg, 2016;
Title: Germinal; Author: Emil Zola; Translator: Abulfatuh Imam; Tehran, Golshai, first edition 1364, third edition 1369; on 515 pages;
It is the story of workers' revolt and strike; The uprising of wage earners, and the society that falls apart in the blink of an eye, is the struggle of capital and labor; The importance of "Germinal" is that it brings the most important challenge of the 20th century to the field of fiction; The adventures take place in the coal mine, in the north of France; Etienne Lantier is fired from his job for slapping his boss, then he gets hired at the Voorro mine; "Etienne" participates in the difficult life and work of the miners; miners who have lived as slaves for generations; "Etienne" opposes his work conditions due to his rebellious nature; communicates with the "socialist" leaders, and organizes the struggle with the mining company, and instigates the strike; After two and a half months of struggle, the miners are forced to resume their work, but they believe that the struggle is still possible; The miners' struggle reaches a critical stage, the troops shoot at the strikers, leaving the workers dead; At the end of the day, although the victory belongs to those capitalists, their victory is apparent; "Etienne", in a spring morning, which reminds of a new era, goes to "Paris"; to start a new struggle,
update date 06/16/1399 AH; 05/22/1400 AH; A. Sherbiani
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the age
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August 10, 2022
Who would have thought that I would find a novel about miners and strikes compelling? I surely didn’t but here I am awarding Germinal 5 full sparkling stars.
Germinal is the 1st novel I read by Emile Zola. It is part of the voluminous Les Rougon-Macquart series in which the authors tries to prove that character is inherited. Even though the series follows the destiny of Rougon-Macquart family through the ages, each novel can be read as a stand alone.
The novel begins with Etienne, a young man, travelling in the dark from village to village, searching for a job. He was fired from his previous employment due to a fight. Unfortunately, it is the 1860’ and the fate does not smile for the poor and needy. The French Economy is not doing well; the coal industry also suffers together with other sectors. One day, he meets Mr. Maheu who find him a low position in the coalmines of Le Voreux. Despite his quick temper, Etienne is a decent and hard working fellow. He quickly becomes a trusted worker in the mine and befriends Maheu’s large family, moving in with them. Etienne soon realises the dire conditions the miners are force to work in, for next to nothing. He starts to read more and begins to think more about the suffering of his pears. He tries to gather support from other miners, which ultimately leads to strike, violence and more suffering.
Germinal is a realist novel but it does not mean there isn’t poetry in the writing. There is a lot of tension, suffering, death, hurt, mistakes, heartbreak and violence but also beauty, joy, love, humour and hope. This novel made me feel all there is to feel so it goes to my favourite shelf.
I listened to the beautiful narration of Leighton Pugh. I am glad he narrator more of the author’s work so I can continue to have his voice in my head when I listen to Zola.
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Intellect
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February 15, 2021
The “Germinal” novel was published in 1885 and is considered the main work of Emile Zola. It describes the inhumane conditions in the mines of the French coal mining area of the 19th century.
The novel sheds light on the conflicts and lines of conflict that arise between capitalists and miners, but also between workers themselves, who disagree about how the terrible conditions can be overcome.
Germinal is considered one of Emile Zola's best works, the author's style and impressive representations are in the foreground. If you read the book, there is no way to remain a mere reader. But you literally feel like you go down to the mine with the workers, work with them, and as you go up the elevator, your eyes are blinded by the daylight.
All in all, this is a timeless book that shows man's inequality, its conflicts and beastly relapses in ruthless, pessimistic openness.
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December 4, 2023
It was awful! Creating this space that is so real and deep is definitely a masterpiece. The story has several pristine descriptions of different spaces that can be read many times and be appreciated.
Germinal is a story of revolution, the effort of painful people who are tired of life and are looking for change, looking for something that will save them from the mire they are trapped in. Revolutions happen, people are lost and ideas are replaced, but in reality no change happens. However, this is the hope that always wants to stay. The beginning and the end of the story and the passing of the main character and the strange impact he has on the lives of the Muso mine workers shape the entire atmosphere of the story. From the middle of the book onwards, you can't predict events and this is Zola's extraordinary power in expressing his pure narrative about people, and the descriptions, the descriptions are unique...
Germinal means sprouting; In the revolutionary calendar, French people call the first month of spring Germinal; One of the most beautiful and lovely words I have ever heard.
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Lisa
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February 3, 2018
Étienne Lantier - Claude, the painter's brother! Nana, the whore's brother! Jacques, the murderer's brother! Gervaise, the alcoholic's son!
I know this part of the Rougon-Macquart family tree better than any other, and each of the family members stands for a novel that sends a shiver down my spine - of reading delight and sorrowful mourning over the human condition. "Germinal" is a masterpiece in its own right, but one can't help thinking of the social background of the young man wandering up the street in a French mining town in the beginning of the novel. The tragic life experience he's already gathered, being the son of Gervaise Lantier/Coupeau, - who drinks herself into delirium in the poor parts of Paris, in L'Assommoir (The Dram Shop), whose daughter Nana ends up a prostitute, whose other son Claude commits suicide when failing to deliver The Masterpiece he strives for, whose third son is driven by murderous madness to commit unspeakable crimes.
Despite the family history, Étienne Lantier is a decent man, and a socially progressive thinker. In the mining society, he plunges into the life of a rising working class, bound to the mine, living under conditions that ultimately lead to strike, and more suffering. The mine itself is a protagonist: a scary modern monster, swallowing human beings alive, but spitting out most of them again, marked for life by the Hades of profitability.
I spent some childhood years in a small community close to a famous copper mine in Sweden, and one of the yearly school field trips led students down into the depth of the mine, on a guided tour around the maze of former mining activity. I will never forget the feeling of helpless panic when I first tried to imagine the unbearable heat close to the fires, the pain in the bodies crawling into the narrow paths, the physical exhaustion, the lack of air, the poisoned atmosphere, the darkness, the hunger...
Around the mine, now part of UNESCO world heritage, a small town grew, with modern features such as health care and well-organised administration. But above all, it was a living hell for the poor families trying to survive on minimum wages to fill the pockets of the owners, who strove to rise on the social ladder. Child labour is a crucial part of the story of Falu Rödfärg, a product deriving directly from the mining business which eventually resulted in a strong national identification with the Swedish red, wooden houses. Whenever I see one of the many red houses in the neighbourhood, I think of the paint that was produced as a by-product of the copper mining, and how it has become unconscious, but lasting evidence of early Swedish industrialism to this day.
So when I read "Germinal" for the first time, I had a vivid real-life experience to fall back upon, to empathise with the characters. When they went on strike, found sole pleasure in promiscuity, let anger take over their minds, I KNEW why. I still felt the cold, dark mountain closing in on me.
I have been to the copper mine several times as a grown-up, taking students and my own children down into the underworld, and now Zola's Étienne accompanies me every time, and I relive the dramatic scenes over and over - when he is trapped in the mine with Catherine. Hardly imaginable that a love story could have an uglier, darker setting, but it remains one of my favourite scenes in world literature.
As for the social question, despite its hopeful title, "Germinal" doesn't solve anything. The split between working masses and ownership is as wide as before when Étienne finally takes the road out of the small town again, after a dramatic showdown.
Gaskell tried to find a solution in the engaging power of individuals, linking the values of North and South in her masterpiece on social tension in England during the same era. Nothing of the kind is offered the characters in Zola's novel - and in a way, that might make it a more realistic attempt at showing the life conditions in 19th century industrial communities. A true working class revolution, according to Zola, would fail because of the revolutionaries' inevitable transformation into oppressors, should they happen to be successful:
"Oui, c'est votre idée, à vous tous, les ouvriers français, déterrer un trésor, pour le manger seul ensuite, dans un coin d'égoïsme et de fainéantise. Vous avez beau crier contre les riches, le courage vous manque de rendre aux pauvres l'argent que la fortune vous envoie... Jamais vous ne serez dignes du bonheur, tant que vous aurez quelque chose à vous, et que votre haine des bourgeois viendra uniquement de votre besoin enragé d'être des bourgeois à leur place."
This mirrors Albert Camus' reflections on rebellion and revolution in human history, L'homme révolté forever striving to take the role of his jailers, thus producing new cries for justice which will end up dethroning him in an eternal violent movement.
As a description of 19th century life, "Germinal" is unsurpassed in its earthly hell - no need for a metaphysical one at all!
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Luís
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October 19, 2023
History was written by Emile Zola, who counted it working in a coal mine in France and describes a bloody strike that marks the beginning of the labor movement. It begins with Etienne, who arrives at the mine looking for a job and knows Bonnemort (GoodDeath), so-called because he survived mine accidents countless times. Etienne is very close to the Good Death family, where practically everyone works in the mine except the more minor children and the mother. Like most families in the area, she needs to care for them since the more people working, the more money to buy bread, the better cause wages are miserable. The working conditions at the mine are inhumane, a daily adventure having to go down to its depths. Etienne begins to incite the workers to strike, so they decide to make a reserve fund to not go hungry during the strike. It turns out that this money collected soon ends, and with the bosses threatening to lay off everyone and bring other workers there, some strikers begin to want to return to work so as not to starve, creating even more tension.
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Henry Avila
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March 29, 2024
Emile Zola's acknowledged masterpiece written in 1885, the politics are dated as history has shown, his overemphasis on sex, research and common sense have refuted, this is the 19th century, not the 21st, (trying to sell more books ? "Nana," made the same error) his characters are more symbols than real human beings, with a quite melodramatic plot even, yet Germinal, is a superb novel, which will capture your total interest, the reader will learn much about little known aspects, the dangers , of coal mining in France, ( and the world) ... ironically all have closed now, because of cheap foreign competition...Etienne Lantier, is young, 21, a strong Frenchman, who has just lost his job as a mechanic, the intelligent man, hasn't discovered you don't curse your boss, if you want to keep a job, the too passionate, angry vagabond with a hair-trigger temper, is homeless and hungry , walking in the dark, roaming a coal mining district, near the border of Belgium, sleeping outdoors on the ground, no money , days pass he needs another job soon or starve to death, wondering how his life has come to this sad condition. At last after many rejections for employment, he gets work in the coal mine of Le Vereaux, thanks to the help of Vincent Maheu, a veteran in the industry, the father of seven, his family has been digging deep underground for coal, over a century and losing many members as a result of numerous accidents. They live, the miners in a small company village called Two Hundred and Forty, that's right no name just a number, after spending a short time in a boarding house he moves into Monsieur Maheu tiny home, with his old, sick father, feisty, still attractive wife, seven rambunctious children, a cozy ten people inside, too cozy, they need his salary to survive, ( now eleven) sleeping with others in an ancient bed , no privacy , can't afford that luxury, little to eat, not much heat for the cold winter months.. the poor, uneducated workers are exploited by the mining company. Etienne shortly eyes the pretty teenage daughter of Maheu, Catherine, she seems interested but a complication ensues , another admirer, the good looking brute Chaval, her first love... An infinite talk about a strike, is discussed everywhere , by the miners, below in holes, shafts, a half a mile under the surface, in taverns, in their houses, and walking back home, still Etienne, at first doesn't get involved, he's a new coal miner, learning quickly, though, a natural at it, becomes one of the best . Seeing the appalling situation in the mine, the filthy back breaking work, cramp, uneven black tunnels that go on forever, cave-ins, toxic gases, floods from underground water, the extreme high heat, a miserable low paying job, for what reason ? They die, yet no improvement for the workers... something must be done. His fiery Russian friend, Souvarene, who he met there, at the boarding house, is an anarchist, wanted for murderous crimes back home, fleeing Russia, says destroy, kill almost everything and everyone, begin again , a new , better world will rise. Lantier, starts believing ... he speaks, a great stir of excitement he brings to the miners ... it is called hope, a paradise on Earth soon , no more poverty... a real future, that promises the oppressed, prosperity...what can they lose...the workers will follow him..
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Guille
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July 17, 2019
Germinal becomes The French Grapes of Wrath. Both aim to show the effects of savage capitalism, without control or limitations and in both the outcome is disheartening, although both also leave in the end that little seed of hope that is so necessary and, perhaps, so counterproductive. But Zola's work has more faces than the American novel.
Firstly, he presents the workers to us in a more realistic way; first like some innocent saints who kiss the hand that suffocates them (also the women who endure not only the hand of their employers but that of their men, whom, despite mistreatment, they defend and return to again and again, as if the relationship with them could not be any other way); and then, how frustration, hunger, not having anything and, therefore, the absence of fear of losing something, take hold in them with an unexpected and brutal force and the dogs bite their master's hand, amazed at the fact of that his servants, despising all the effort dedicated to them, could need more than what they have.
But the big difference with the American work is that Zola also exposes us to the other side of the conflict, that of the owners and their classist, almost biological vision of society, in which the workers are a separate species, very different from them. themselves, with other needs, other desires and aspirations, who only need the fair and necessary salary that allows them to generate another generation that ensures the maintenance of the business.
This paragraph, from the mine administrator, is very eloquent.
"Who was the idiot who based the happiness of this world on the distribution of wealth? These revolutionary visionaries could demolish society and rebuild another, and they will not be able to add a single joy to humanity, nor will they spare it any pain because every one had more bread and more herrings. Acting in this way, they will even widen the earthly misery, causing one day even the dogs to howl in despair when they have been taken out of the calm satisfaction of their instincts, to infect them with the insatiated suffering of the passions. No, the good resided in not being, and, since one had to exist, being a tree, a simple stone or, better yet, the grain of sand that cannot groan under the demands of passers-by."
Zola is not benevolent towards the holy innocents, those exploited people who in one way or another worship their master and are capable of kneeling to chase the olfactory trace of the prey their master is after so that, once found, they can return for their clod of blood. sugar. And it is not benevolent towards individualists who are capable of climbing at the cost of the suffering of their companions and, without justifying indiscriminate violence, it understands the situation of those for whom there are only two paths left and who do not accept the slavery that one of them entails. .
Great novel, brutal and magnificent.
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Banafsheh
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December 5, 2019
If
you want to know how Germinal is a book, I have only one answer: a masterpiece in the true sense of the word.
If you want to say how I felt while reading it, I can only say: confusion.
And if you want to tell me where this book ranks among my books, I will answer: it is one of the most unforgettable.
Emil
Zola wrote a twenty-volume collection called Rogen Makar. In these twenty books, he narrates the fate of several generations of a family in the context of history, and Germinal is the thirteenth book of this series about a boy named Etienne who works in a coal mine. Germinal literally means sprouting. Etienne sprouts the revolution.
The most important aspect of Zola's writing style is the harsh descriptions. So much so that you feel like you went into the darkness of the mine and you are really extracting coal. So much so that you taste the long hunger. So much so that your body trembles when the shot is fired. Yes, it's so tangible!!
The beginning of the book did not attract me much. I don't know because I didn't know Zola's writing or because I hadn't read Rogen Makar's previous volumes. In short, it took me a while to fall away, but the last third of the book is deadly. You can't put it down and it's so bitter and shocking that even now that I'm writing about it, I'm disgusted and my eyes are watering. The bitterness of this book is different from all the bitterness that I have read so far. The greed and aroma of this bitterness is different.
I don't know
, maybe the simultaneous reading of this book and November 2018 made it bitter for me. But well... Germinal means sprouting. Maybe we are sprouting. Maybe it will be spring. Maybe.
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October 13, 2022
Within the first few pages of Zola's striking masterpiece I was completely sucked into his vision of the poverty suffering and slave driven folk of the mining world. First published in 1885 it holds the power and importance for today. As we start with young unemployed railway worker Etienne Lantier wondering the cold and punishing landscape of northern France in search of work, and without a penny to his name is desperate to land just about anything that pays. After stumbling into a small mining community during the night he is pointed towards the Le Voreux mine who may have an opportunity for him, and after befriending the Maheu family where most of them are employees he soon discovers just what a hard life they truly live. The way Zola goes into detail of the daily routine for the miners is both powerfully compelling and squalidly heart wrenching, with shifts starting long before the break of dawn; men, women and children march off into the dark depths of the pits where the air is thick and stuffy and work exhausting, and in a matter of minutes most are black from head to toe with coal and sweating so much some of the weaker few can barely stand up. In the eyes of Etienne they are all buried like moles under the crushing weight of the earth with burning lungs and little pay for their efforts while owners and bosses reap the rewards with a fine and wealthy standard of living and no interest in those who help line their pockets. Over time Etienne sees this has got to stop, things just can not continue in this way, struggling to buy even the most basic food for survival; and things only get worse when the company offers a new pay system that will see them less off. Slowly Etienne starts to gather support from the workers for a strike, a strike that would see the numbers go from the few to the hundreds to the thousands and cause massive repercussions for the chaos and mindless actions that are about to unfold...
At well over five hundred pages, at no point was I ever going through a period - even brief - where I felt the narrative dropped off. Although the main theme running throughout is the lead up to the strike, beyond that there is so much more going on, with many others in the community studied in just as much of a way that you really feel for the whole village. Another thing to note that I couldn't quite believe is the amount of sexual tension between residents, as even in times of complete despair and hunger they seem to be at it like rabbits - in the bushes, behind buildings and abandoned barns. Generally, the women are treated appallingly, and there are those who lost their innocence without wanting it. I guess from their viewpoint they may be poor, starving and on the verge of death but sex is at least some joyful respite from their misery if only short lived. After Etienne eventually moves in with the Mateu family I knew this would be a problem as he always had feeling for the pale and hard working daughter Catherine, but she already had a brute and nasty man in Chavel, and the two would come to blows over her. The pity for workers is only escalated when you see the sort of meals the rich fat cat bosses indulge in while the miners try to to beg, steel, cheat and sell household items just for a loaf of bread, and in the case of the Mateu's their home is almost striped bare in the end, with not even a candle for warmth; old grandfather Bonnemort is left staring at the walls coughing up black phlegm from years in the pits while the rest of the family who's minds are shattered just see death as their escape clause.
But its the actions of the strike that I will truly never forget; things get out of hand pretty quickly as the marching horde of hell-bent miners go from mine to mine and cause utter carnage and maximum damage to the pits in a show of savagery. All control is lost and a blood lust of frenzy takes hold, even the women turn into crazed wild animals, this is no longer a strike but a violent wave of terror; the poor many against the wealthy few, and when the owner of a local shop meets a gruesome end they now realize that a boundary has been crossed and there is no going back. There is some calm after the storm before a tense and claustrophobic finale left me reeling. I went through just about every emotion one could go through from reading a novel, and I'd be surprised if I read a better 19th century classic for a long time to come. Germinal is an out-and-out masterpiece.
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