Germinal in Reading with Style

Jul 03, 2014 Wendy rated it really liked it

Shelves: in-translation, 1001-books, blooms-western-canon, classics

Bleak, epic, surprisingly graphic (not for Zola, but for the era in general), gripping, this one may require a tissue handy at times. In this 1885 novel about the plight of a impoverished miners who go on strike, class struggle ultimately takes a back seat to the ravages of Mother Nature (who has been ravished and abused herself).

The story follows Etienne, a young engineer seeking work at the mines after being sacked for hitting his boss. A (relatively) educated man, he convinces his fellow min ...more

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Mar 08, 2012 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: author-zola, 5-star-reads, 1001-books, france, nineteenth-century

The introduction tells us The novel's title refers to the name of a month of the French Republican Calendar, a spring month, with 'germen' being Latin for 'seed', suggesting the hope for a better future for the miners. Zola refers to this seed in the final paragraphs of the novel. However, I did not see it as the seed for a hope for a better future, but rather the seeds of communism, socialism, unionism - all of those -isms I've pretty much hated all my life. Zola seems to have hated a different ...more

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Aug 23, 2013 Karen Michele Burns rated it it was amazing

Shelves: my-5-star-books, 1001-books-completed

I am always drawn in by the plight of the poor and Germinal took me into the world of the miners in France. It was one of the more intense descriptions of the downtrodden that I have read. It surprises me that this is my first Zola, but also makes me happy to have discovered a new classic author that I really enjoy. The writing style is straightforward and the characters are interesting plus the plot carries the reader along into this desperate world of the families striking and starving in orde ...more

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Jan 21, 2009 Alex rated it it was amazing

I've read three books in the series and this is my favorite. I like the class war theme and Zola's rendering of class distinctions very much. Zola's details in this regard are amazing: the workmen standing barechested at dusk in the doorways of their homes, the sexual encounters in the fields.... He doesn't glorify the working class, just gets it right. Balks at nothing.

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