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Product Description
Zola's masterpiece of working life, Germinal (1885), exposes the inhuman conditions of miners in northern France in the 1860s. By Zola's death in 1902 it had come to symbolise the call for freedom from oppression so forcefully that the crowd which gathered at his State funeral chanted 'Germinal! Germinal!'. The central figure, Etienne Lantier, is an outsider who enters the community and eventually leads his fellow-miners in a strike protesting against pay-cuts - a strike which becomes a losing battle against starvation, repression, and sabotage. Yet despite all the violence and disillusion which rock the mining community to its foundations, Lantier retains his belief in the ultimate germination of a new society, leading to a better world. Germinal is a dramatic novel of working life and everyday relationships, but it is also a complex novel of ideas, given fresh vigour and power in this new translation.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I first read this when I was about 12 years old (in an English translation, I hasten to add) as I had run out of reading matter and came across this book in my grandfather's study.
I am now 62 years of age, but have never forgotten the initial impact this made on me. Somehow Zola's writing is so descriptive and evocative that one feels that one is really there in the suffering and squalor along with the characters. The suffering and social deprivation of those times is quite unbelievable as we look back over 150 years.
I do not know who translated that edition but I have read it in the original French since, where it is even more
moving.
If you haven't read it, please do, you'll be glad you did and, as someone else wrote in review, it could even change your life or, at the very least give you much pause for thought.
I am now 62 years of age, but have never forgotten the initial impact this made on me. Somehow Zola's writing is so descriptive and evocative that one feels that one is really there in the suffering and squalor along with the characters. The suffering and social deprivation of those times is quite unbelievable as we look back over 150 years.
I do not know who translated that edition but I have read it in the original French since, where it is even more
moving.
If you haven't read it, please do, you'll be glad you did and, as someone else wrote in review, it could even change your life or, at the very least give you much pause for thought.
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I came across this book on one of the Open University literature courses. It tells a harrowing tale of life in a mining community as the workers gradually starve and are forced into desperate measures for their survival when a new worker, Etienne Lantier, arrives and eventually masterminds a strike against the worsening working conditions endured underground, and the devious new pay structure. The backbreaking working life of the miners is accurately and chillingly portrayed, (you'll never want to go in a lift again!) contrasted with a backdrop of sexual permissiveness in the community. There are echoes of Mrs. Gaskell and 'Love on the Dole'. In all, a chilling evocation of the workers' hellish existence, and familial ties, in nineteenth cnetury France.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First of all, it's important to say that Zola is one of my favourite Authors, and someone that should be read by a lot more (English speaking) people. As with all foreign authors, a good translation is necessary. Unfortunately, this isn't it. You really can't afford to read a book this length in this poor a rendering, not least as you'll have to re-read section after section just to understand what's going on.
A far better translation is given by Roger Pearson, who's generally reliable when it comes to Zola:
Germinal (Penguin Classics)
Don't put yourself through unnecessary pain! Read this book in a recognisable form of English - if this translation was your only experience of Zola you'd be left wondering why he's generally regarded as one of the finest writers ever.
A far better translation is given by Roger Pearson, who's generally reliable when it comes to Zola:
Germinal (Penguin Classics)
Don't put yourself through unnecessary pain! Read this book in a recognisable form of English - if this translation was your only experience of Zola you'd be left wondering why he's generally regarded as one of the finest writers ever.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Masterpiece!
There are few books that have touched me like this before. Zola's masterpiece of working life tells an incredible story of a strike by miners in northern france against pay cuts... Read more
Published 1 month ago by john
A deeply affecting, monumental book. TRUELY amazing.
I absolutely agree with the statements made about Zola's Germinal being one of the masterpieces of French literature. A deeply affecting, monumental book - TRUELY Amazing. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Allhug
'Germinal' by Émile Zola'
Émile Zola's 'Germinal' is an exposé on the harsh working conditions endured by the coal miners of Northern France in the late nineteenth century. Read more
Published on 25 May 2010 by Joseph Porter
TERRIBLE TRANSLATION OF A MARVELLOUS BOOK
I reviewed this book when I read it as a Penguin Classic and in another translation done in the 1940's ( I do not know by whom) it is a marvellous read, evocative of the... Read more
Published on 5 Oct 2009 by Mrs. Judith Lugg
Present for a friend
I purchased this book, for a friend, who was giving it to his daughter as a present!
Bearing in mind that my friend is a Marxist, I believe that he was delighted with... Read more
Bearing in mind that my friend is a Marxist, I believe that he was delighted with... Read more
Published on 23 Sep 2009 by Ralph Richardson
Germinal
First book that shook me to the extent that couldn't sleep for a week. Zola at his best.
Published on 28 Feb 2009 by Teresa Quayle
claustrophobic excellence.
I read this book for an ou course. If it had not been on the list there is no way I could have finished it. Read more
Published on 21 Mar 2008 by Mrs. D. L. Cox
An emotional rollercoaster
This is the 5th novel by Zola I have read and the best yet. The novel takes you on an emotional rollercoaster as you accompany the Maheu family through their bitter struggle to... Read more
Published on 26 Jan 2005
Brilliant, exciting story that knocks spots off Dickens
Why would anyone read Dickens when they could read the work of Zola. Whilst Dickens wrote twee, contrived stories Zola was writing passionate, exciting sweeping novels about real... Read more
Published on 29 July 2002
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