Germinal (1885) is the thirteenth novel in Emile Zola's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. Usually considered Zola's undisputed masterpiece and one of the greatest novels ever written in the French language, the novel - an uncompromisingly harsh and realistic story of a coalminers' strike in northern France in the 1860s - has been published and translated in over one hundred countries as well as inspiring five film adaptations and two TV productions. ImageMetadata File history File links Germinal_book. ... In political geography and international politics a country is a geographical entity, a territory, most commonly associated with the notions of state or nation. ... Les Rougon-Macquart is the collective title given to French novelist Emile Zolas greatest literary achievement, a monumental twenty-novel cycle about the exploits of various members of an extended family during the French Second Empire, from the coup détat of December 1851 which established Napoleon III as... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... La Joie de vivre (The Joy of Living) is a novel by Emile Zola published in 1884. ... LOeuvre (The Masterpiece) was a 1886 novel by Émile Zola (part of his Les Rougon-Macquart series) that was a lightly fictionalized account of his childhood friendship with the painter Paul Cézanne, as the fictional painter Claude Lantier who fails in his lifes work to create a... 1885 (MDCCCLXXXV) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... mile Zola (April 2, 1840 - September 29, 1902) 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. ... Les Rougon-Macquart is the collective title given to French novelist Emile Zolas greatest literary achievement, a monumental twenty-novel cycle about the exploits of various members of an extended family during the French Second Empire, from the coup détat of December 1851 which established Napoleon III as... French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ...

The title refers to the name of a month of the French Republic Calendar, a spring month. Germen is a Latin word which means "seed"; the novel describes the hope for a better future that seeds amongst the miners. A French Revolutionary Calendar in the Historical Museum of Lausanne. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... The El Chino Mine located near Silver City, New Mexico is an open-pit copper mine Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually (but not always) from an ore body, vein, or (coal) seam. ...

Plot summary

The novel's central character is Étienne Lantier, previously seen in Zola's other masterpiece, L'Assommoir (1877), a young migrant worker who arrives at the forbidding coalmining town of Montsou in the bleak far north of France to earn a living as a miner. Sacked from his previous job on the railways for assaulting a superior - Étienne was originally to have been the central character in Zola's "murder on the trains" thriller La Bête humaine (1890), before the overwhelmingly positive reaction to Germinal persuaded him otherwise - he befriends the veteran miner Maheu, who finds him somewhere to stay and gets him a job pushing the carts down the pit. LAssommoir (1877) is the seventh novel in Emile Zolas twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. ... 1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... La Bête Humaine is a 1890 novel by Èmile Zola. ... 1890 (MDCCCXC) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar). ...

Étienne is portrayed as a hard-working idealist but also a naïve youth; Zola's genetic theories come into play as Étienne is presumed to have inherited his Macquart ancestors' traits of hotheaded impulsiveness and an addictive personality capable of exploding into rage under the influence of drink or strong passions. Luckily, Zola keeps his theorising in the background and Étienne's motivations are much more natural as a result. He embraces socialist principles, reading large amounts of working class movement literature and fraternising with Souvarine, a Russian anarchist and political emigré who has also come to Montsou to seek a living in the pits. Étienne's simplistic understanding of socialist politics and their rousing effect on him are very reminiscent of the rebel Silvère in the first novel in the cycle, La Fortune des Rougon (1871). La Fortune des Rougon, originally published in 1871, is the first novel in Emile Zolas monumental twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. ... 1871 (MDCCCLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

While this is going on, Étienne also falls for Maheu's daughter Catherine, also employed pushing carts in the mines, and he is drawn into the relationship between her and her brutish lover Chaval, a prototype for the character of Buteau in Zola's later novel La Terre (1887). The complex tangle of the miners' lives is played out against a backdrop of severe poverty and oppression, as their working and living conditions continue to worsen throughout the novel; eventually, pushed to breaking point, the miners decide to strike and Étienne, now a respected member of the community and recognised as a political idealist, becomes the leader of the movement. While the anarchist Souvarine preaches violent action, the miners and their families hold back, their poverty becoming ever more disastrous, until they are sparked into a ferocious riot, the violence of which is described in explicit terms by Zola, as well as providing some of the novelist's best and most evocative crowd scenes. The rioters are eventually confronted by police and the army, who repress the revolt in a violent and unforgettable episode. Disillusioned, the miners go back to work, blaming Étienne for the failure of the strike; then, in a fit of anarchist fervour, Souvarine sabotages the entrance shaft of one of the Montsou pits, trapping Étienne, Catherine and Chaval at the bottom. The ensuing drama and the long wait for rescue are among some of Zola's best scenes, and the novel draws to a dramatic close. La Terre (The Earth) is a novel by Émile Zola, published in 1887. ... 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. ...

The title, Germinal, is drawn from the springtime seventh month of the French Revolutionary Calendar, and is meant to evoke imagery of germination, new growth and fertility. Accordingly, Zola ends the novel on a note of hope, and one which has provided inspiration to socialist and reformist causes of all kinds throughout the years since its first publication: The French Revolutionary Calendar or French Republican Calendar is a calendar proposed during the French Revolution, and in use by the French government for 13 years from 1793. ...

"Beneath the blazing of the sun, in that morning of new growth, the countryside rang with song, as its belly swelled with a black and avenging army of men, germinating slowly in its furrows, growing upwards in readiness for harvests to come, until one day soon their ripening would burst open the earth itself."

By the time of his death, the novel had come to be recognised as his undisputed masterpiece. At his funeral crowds of workers gathered, cheering the cortège with shouts of "Germinal! Germinal!". Since then the book has come to symbolise working class causes and to this day retains a special place in French mining-town folklore.

Zola was always very proud of Germinal, and was always keen to defend its accuracy against accusations of hyperbole and exaggeration (from the conservatives) or of slander against the working classes (from the socialists). His research had been typically thorough, especially the parts involving lengthy observational visits to northern French mining towns in 1884, such as witnessing the after-effects of a crippling miners' strike first-hand at Anzin or actually going down a working coal pit at Denain. The mine scenes are especially vivid and haunting as a result.

A sensation upon original publication, it is now by far the best-selling of Zola's novels, both in France and internationally. A number of exceptional modern translations are currently in print and widely available.

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The novel has been filmed a number of times, most recently in 1993 in a huge production directed by Claude Berri and starring Gérard Depardieu and Miou-Miou, at that time the most expensive feature film ever made in France. Much of Berri's film was shot on location in the Lens and Valenciennes regions of northern France, and the extensive unemployment and poverty the cast and crew still witnessed there led to the formation of a society, "Germinal l'association", headed by Depardieu, to alleviate the suffering caused by crippling unemployment in the départements comprising the region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... Claude Berri (born July 1, 1934) is a French film director, actor, screenwriter and producer. ... Gérard Depardieu. ... Miou-Miou (born Sylvette Hery, February 22, 1950 in Paris, France) is a French actress. ... Lens is commune in northern France, in the Pas-de-Calais département. ... Valenciennes (Dutch: Valencijn, Latin: Valentianae) is a town and commune in northern France in the Nord département on the Escaut river. ... The départements (or departments) are administrative units of France and many former French colonies, roughly analogous to British counties. ... Capital Lille Area 12,414 km² Regional President Daniel Percheron ( PS) (since 2001) Population   - 2004 estimate   - 1999 census   - Density (Ranked 4th) 4,026,000 3,996,588 324/km² (2004) Arrondissements 13 Cantons 156 Communes 1,546 Départements Nord Pas-de-Calais The administrative region of Nord-Pas-de...

La Joie de vivre (The Joy of Living) is a novel by Emile Zola published in 1884. ... Les Rougon-Macquart is the collective title given to French novelist Emile Zolas greatest literary achievement, a monumental twenty-novel cycle about the exploits of various members of an extended family during the French Second Empire, from the coup détat of December 1851 which established Napoleon III as... LOeuvre (The Masterpiece) was a 1886 novel by Émile Zola (part of his Les Rougon-Macquart series) that was a lightly fictionalized account of his childhood friendship with the painter Paul Cézanne, as the fictional painter Claude Lantier who fails in his lifes work to create a...

External link

• Germinal, available at Project Gutenberg. (French)