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hadeanstars's review against another edition
5.0
Powerful, brooding, brilliant, one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. The 19th century really was the golden age of literature, and the French produced so many works of genius. I would rate Zola as being on a par with Hugo and Proust. This novel is about a mining community that engages in a protracted struggle for fair pay and conditions with their employers, although the struggle soon widens and becomes desperate. Zola uses this as the basis for a broad critique of rapacious capitalism, and the indignities it inflicts on the powerless and innocent.
There are uncomfortable future echoes that make this story still relevant today. Capitalism has not changed, but protections have been put into place to curb the worst excesses of the greedy. But this novel really makes you think about the importance of those protections at a time where unions are being effectively outlawed, if not by statute, then by public and corporate pressure.
This novel is very gritty and dark, and lies somewhere between Dickens’s Hard Times and Tressel’s Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. It builds to an inevitable and sickening catharsis, dragging you, reluctantly to its conclusion. You can’t help but be shocked and appalled, yet you cannot put it down. A work of absolute genius.
There are uncomfortable future echoes that make this story still relevant today. Capitalism has not changed, but protections have been put into place to curb the worst excesses of the greedy. But this novel really makes you think about the importance of those protections at a time where unions are being effectively outlawed, if not by statute, then by public and corporate pressure.
This novel is very gritty and dark, and lies somewhere between Dickens’s Hard Times and Tressel’s Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. It builds to an inevitable and sickening catharsis, dragging you, reluctantly to its conclusion. You can’t help but be shocked and appalled, yet you cannot put it down. A work of absolute genius.
prusche's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
camiloalcantara's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Incredible story that shows how long and painful has been the worker's struggle and how necessary is to change the current system.
jordii's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Ein weiteres Schulbuch, aber ich bin froh, es gelesen zu haben. Die Charaktere sind mir teils sehr ans Herz gewachsen. Die Handlung spiegelt die damalige Zeit sehr gut wieder, denn die unterirdischen Lebensbedingungen sind oft auch schwer zu lesen. Es beschönigt nichts. Zola beschreibt alles sehr ausführlich und äußerst genau, deshalb fand ich es zu langgezogen.
clemo's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
sba_reads's review against another edition
4.0
What?! Amazing! Just read the book! Oh my... I won't even go into details about my feelings. Just read it.
I was recommended this book by one of our literature lecturers as she is a huge fan of all of Zola's works, and she also specialises in class structure in the canon. I'm not sure if it's his writing style or the fact that it's a glimpse into the past in a creative manner, but I was hooked. I love French classic literature so much, and to read this after Maupassant was a delight. I had to sneeze in chapters between studies and I'm glad I did. I will definitely revisit this book over the coming years.
There are a few other Zola books I want to devour, and I only have a few titles so far. He is amazing.
Happy Reading!
I was recommended this book by one of our literature lecturers as she is a huge fan of all of Zola's works, and she also specialises in class structure in the canon. I'm not sure if it's his writing style or the fact that it's a glimpse into the past in a creative manner, but I was hooked. I love French classic literature so much, and to read this after Maupassant was a delight. I had to sneeze in chapters between studies and I'm glad I did. I will definitely revisit this book over the coming years.
There are a few other Zola books I want to devour, and I only have a few titles so far. He is amazing.
Happy Reading!
mhazz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mindyb33's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.0
jayisreading's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
Zola’s Germinal is not a novel that I would normally pick up on my own accord, especially because I’m not particularly interested in the subject matter (though, I guess the average reader probably won’t be that invested in mining in France during the 1800s). When it comes to personal enjoyment, I would say that the novel fell in the middle ground, and I didn’t love or hate it. I think what really won me over, though, was Zola’s socio-political commentary, especially if you take into consideration who and what he may have been engaging with during the period he worked on this novel.
Directly inspired by the miners’ strikes that occurred in the 1860s, Zola crafted a fictional version of a miners’ strike in Northern France to dig deep into class struggle, particularly the exploitation of the working class by the bourgeoisie. There were other ideas that he considered as well, with I think the most surprising being the role of women in these spaces. I will say that the treatment of women in this novel was anything but great (to put it lightly), but I did appreciate Zola’s consideration of how women contributed to the labor movement. The living conditions that Zola described in Germinal were unbelievably bleak, but, in many ways, it did give him the chance to create powerful (even if, at times, heavy-handed) symbols reflecting on struggle and survival, particularly through his characters, notably Étienne and Catherine. On the note of his characters, I appreciated that Zola didn’t follow the good vs. evil model and, instead, chose to place them in murkier spaces.
Again, based on personal enjoyment alone, I would say that I don’t have any strong opinions and found the novel to be just okay. However, I have to fully acknowledge the richness of Zola’s symbolism, graphic details, and commentary in Germinal. I do think it’s worth picking this up, should you be able to handle the overwhelming bleakness, as it is a great exploration of class struggle while also giving a glimpse into how people such as Zola may have been reacting to Marxism. I was also a little surprised by his prose, which I found a bit different from his contemporaries. Relatedly, I thought it was more accessible to a modern reader who might be intimidated by nineteenth-century French literature, should that mean anything.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Alcohol
amirmasoud's review against another edition
5.0
شرح رنجهای کارگران معدن در فرانسهی پس از انقلاب صنعتی. با نثری مجذوب کننده.