Germinal by Émile Zola (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide
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This engaging summary presents an analysis of Germinal by Émile Zola, which is often considered to be his masterpiece. It follows Étienne Lantier as he settles in a mining community in Northern France, where his growing interest in socialism and his horror at the miners’ miserable working conditions eventually lead him to incite a strike. Germinal forms part of Les Rougon-Macquart, an ambitious cycle of 20 novels which tells the story of one extended family under the Second French Empire. Émile Zola was the leading figure of the literary school of naturalism, as well as an influential social thinker, and is now regarded as one of France’s greatest novelists.
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• Key themes and symbols
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Germinal by Émile Zola (Book Analysis) - Bright Summaries
French writer and journalist
Born in Paris in 1840.
Died in Paris in 1902.
Notable works:
Nana (1880), novel
The Ladies’ Paradise (1883), novel
Germinal (1885), novel
Émile Zola was born in 1840 and is one of the most celebrated novelists of 19th century France. He died in 1902, and is renowned as the leading figure of naturalism, a literary movement which aimed to incorporate the latest scientific innovations of the era. In his novels, Zola introduces a hypothesis formed following real-life observation and then tests it through experimentation. This aesthetic is exemplified by the Rougon-Macquart cycle of novels. This series of 20 books was Zola’s most significant literary output, and was hugely successful despite its many detractors.
Zola is also famous for the political stances he took, which often led to reprisals against him. The best-known of these incidents was his condemnation of the Dreyfus affair, when Zola wrote a public letter entitled J’accuse…! (I accuse
, 1898) which made a significant contribution to the resolution of the affair and Captain Dreyfus being cleared of the charges levelled against him.
The emergence of socialism during the rise of capitalism
Genre: novel
Reference edition: Zola, É. (1998) Germinal. Trans. Collier, P. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
1st edition: 1885
Themes: mining, work, love, violence, friendship, hope, death, socialism, working conditions
Germinal is the 13th volume