The Drinking Den
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Product Description
Product Description
Set in the taverns of Paris, this is perhaps the first classical tragedy of working-class people living in the slums of a city. The Drinking Den (1877) is part of the Rougon-Macquart series, a naturalistic history of two branches of a family traced through several generations. Zola's work was influenced by contemporary theories of heredity and experimental science, and the behaviour of the two families is shown to be conditioned by environment and inherited characteristics, chiefly drunkenness and mental instability.
About the Author
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. Robin Buss is a translator and journalist. He has translated a number of works for Penguin Classics, including works by Dumas and Sartre.
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First Sentence
Gervaise had waited for Lantier until two o'clock in the morning; then, shivering all over, because she had been standing in her shift in the cold air from the window, she slumped down across the bed, in a fever, her cheeks wet with tears. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Gervaise had waited for Lantier until two o'clock in the morning; then, shivering all over, because she had been standing in her shift in the cold air from the window, she slumped down across the bed, in a fever, her cheeks wet with tears. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The books of Emile Zola were recommended to me by a friend so I decided to try this one. It exceeded all of my expectations; I was prepared for a difficult, laborious read and instead found myself instantly engrossed. I find it incredible that a book written over 125 years ago could be so enjoyable today. I don't often read classic literature, finding it sometimes to be a struggle, but can honestly say that this entire book was a pleasure to read (even if some of the scenes were unbelievably disturbing).
The book ultimately recounts the life of Gervaise, a young French woman. We see her climb high and achieve happiness and success, but then witness the downwards spiral of her destruction. But the book isn't solely about Gervaise, as Zola introduces many other characters, whose traits all juxtapose with one another, creating a melting pot of comedy, drama and tension. He also depicts the most dreadful scenes of poverty and hardship, scenes that are almost unbelievable to imagine living in the luxury of the 21st Century. Zola's talent in slowly building up characters and plot make the book the success it is; he takes his time to describe scenes, for example he spends the whole of Chapter 7 describing Gervaise's great feast. But these lengthy scenes don't hinder the novel in the slightest, instead they give the reader time to slowly and gradually absorb all of the details. I felt as though I had stepped into the pages of this book.
Overall a remarkable piece of writing. This will certainly not be my last novel by Zola.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First of all this, the seventh of Zola's Rougons-Macquart series, is an extremely difficult read. Not because of it's weightiness or intensity, but sheerly because it's so damn sad!
Most of you will probably be more familiar with the story of Nana, well this is the story of her mother Gervaise, though we do see the how Nana became the character she did through the last few chapters of The Drinking Den (L'Assomoir).
We start the book full of hope, along with Gervaise, that her ambition for a business of her own and her dislike of the drinking culture already evident in the Parisian working-class suburbs, will take her away from that kind of life. But the subsequent journey we take with her and her useless husband Coupeau deep into the hideous depths of poverty, is depressingly believable. This, after all, is a common story, it happens everyday, still.
Though a hugely tragic story, Zola's supreme style of writing, lends it some very funny dark humour, and cutting translations of French colloquial phrasings.
But it's the passages of extreme tragedy that will stick with you for a long long time, and I'm really struggling to remember anything equal to the sheer horror of the story of the young child Lalie's life and demise. I won't give anything away, but suffice to say, whilst reading it in bed, I absolutely wept. In fact I almost couldn't read it, it was a real struggle to persevere with.
As part of our human nature, we don't want to believe that poverty of the depth of Gervaise's story actually exists, and even whilst reading about it, I tried to distance myself from it. Thinking, ah well, this is just an extreme fictional example of poverty. But by the end of the book, you can't help but to realise this isn't entirely fictional, people have and do live like that.
It's a hard read, but one which will stay with you forever.
Most of you will probably be more familiar with the story of Nana, well this is the story of her mother Gervaise, though we do see the how Nana became the character she did through the last few chapters of The Drinking Den (L'Assomoir).
We start the book full of hope, along with Gervaise, that her ambition for a business of her own and her dislike of the drinking culture already evident in the Parisian working-class suburbs, will take her away from that kind of life. But the subsequent journey we take with her and her useless husband Coupeau deep into the hideous depths of poverty, is depressingly believable. This, after all, is a common story, it happens everyday, still.
Though a hugely tragic story, Zola's supreme style of writing, lends it some very funny dark humour, and cutting translations of French colloquial phrasings.
But it's the passages of extreme tragedy that will stick with you for a long long time, and I'm really struggling to remember anything equal to the sheer horror of the story of the young child Lalie's life and demise. I won't give anything away, but suffice to say, whilst reading it in bed, I absolutely wept. In fact I almost couldn't read it, it was a real struggle to persevere with.
As part of our human nature, we don't want to believe that poverty of the depth of Gervaise's story actually exists, and even whilst reading about it, I tried to distance myself from it. Thinking, ah well, this is just an extreme fictional example of poverty. But by the end of the book, you can't help but to realise this isn't entirely fictional, people have and do live like that.
It's a hard read, but one which will stay with you forever.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
The Drinking Den is Zola's guided tour through the inferno of nineteenth century Parisian poverty
9 April 2008
Format:Paperback
Emile Zola 91840-1902) is one of the greatest French authors of the literary movement called Naturalism. In his many works Zola explores all of French society in graphic detail using slang, profanity, degradation and vice. This 1876 work "The Drinking Den" (the title has been variously translated through the years) is a graphic account of the life of a poor Parisian washerwoman named Gervaise.
Gervaise arrives in Paris with her lover the odious Lantier. He leaves her and their two children for the readily available drinking dens and fleshpots of the City of Light. Gervaise falls in love and marries a reputable roofer named Coupeau. Although Gervaise does not get on well with Coupeau's new family the couple produce a child Nana and live a relatively happy life. All of this changes with dramatic force when Coupeau falls from a roof making it impossible for him to work full time.
Gervaise opens her own laundry but the years take their toll. At the novel's end she dies a drunken obese old woman scorned by society and her family. Their daughter Nana lives the life of a prostitute. Prior to the sad end the unfortuante Gervaise was involved in a seedy menage a trois with Lantier and Coupeau!
In the Penguin translation their are many expletives which are used and scenes of bawdy drunken and brutal behavior. A touching character is a young girl who dies at the age of eight. The girl had been viciously beaten by her father as she sought to protect her younger siblings from his wrathful behavior.
If you want to be cheered up look elsewhere! Naturalism is gritty and shows life without illusion. Zola was a defender of Dreyfus and a champion for the poor. His style is journalistic and almost scientific in the way his characters are examined under the literary microscope he uses with genius.
Gervaise arrives in Paris with her lover the odious Lantier. He leaves her and their two children for the readily available drinking dens and fleshpots of the City of Light. Gervaise falls in love and marries a reputable roofer named Coupeau. Although Gervaise does not get on well with Coupeau's new family the couple produce a child Nana and live a relatively happy life. All of this changes with dramatic force when Coupeau falls from a roof making it impossible for him to work full time.
Gervaise opens her own laundry but the years take their toll. At the novel's end she dies a drunken obese old woman scorned by society and her family. Their daughter Nana lives the life of a prostitute. Prior to the sad end the unfortuante Gervaise was involved in a seedy menage a trois with Lantier and Coupeau!
In the Penguin translation their are many expletives which are used and scenes of bawdy drunken and brutal behavior. A touching character is a young girl who dies at the age of eight. The girl had been viciously beaten by her father as she sought to protect her younger siblings from his wrathful behavior.
If you want to be cheered up look elsewhere! Naturalism is gritty and shows life without illusion. Zola was a defender of Dreyfus and a champion for the poor. His style is journalistic and almost scientific in the way his characters are examined under the literary microscope he uses with genius.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
TAKES YOUR BREATH AWAY
18 Oct 2010
Format:Paperback
This book actually kept me awake at night! The story is so dramatic that I would wake up in the middle of the night feeling so sorry for Gervaise. For me reading this book was a similar experience to reading Dickens's David Copperfield, one of my favorite books. It doesn't matter that they were written over 100 years ago, the writing is so vivid that you feel you are getting a picture of the life of the lower classes in England (Dickens) and Paris (Zola).
10 of 14 people found the following review helpful
For those who love Zola -- Excellent!
22 Aug 2005
Format:Paperback
Zola is not for everyone, it can be difficult to get through at times, but this is definately one of the best in the R-M cycle. Incredibly interesting descriptions of people and Paris. I liked this Penguin translation much better than the Oxford edition (very British).
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