335:(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 Ătienne, now a respected member of the community and recognized 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 that repress the revolt in a violent and unforgettable episode. Disillusioned, the miners go back to work, blaming Ătienne for the failure of the strike; then, Souvarine sabotages the entrance shaft of one of the Montsou pits, trapping Ătienne, 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. After Chaval is killed by Ătienne, Catherine and Ătienne are finally able to be lovers before Catherine dies in his arms. Ătienne is eventually rescued and fired but he goes on to live in Paris with Pluchart, an organizer for
405:. Posing as a secretary for a member of the French Chamber of Deputies, he descended into the pits wearing his city clothes, his frock coat, high stiff collar, and high stiff hat (this appeals to me for reasons I wonât delay you with), and carrying a notebook and pen. One day Zola and the miners who were serving as his guides were 150 feet below the ground when Zola noticed an enormous workhorse, a Percheron, pulling a sled piled with coal through a tunnel. Zola asked, âHow do you get that animal in and out of the mine every day?â At first the miners thought he was joking. Then they realized he was serious, and one of them said, âMr. Zola, donât you understand? That horse comes down here once, when heâs a colt, barely more than a foal, and still able to fit into the buckets that bring us down here. That horse grows up down here. He grows blind down here after a year or two, from the lack of light. He hauls coal down here until he canât haul it anymore, and then he dies down here, and his bones are buried down here.â When Zola transfers this revelation from the pages of his documentation notebook to the pages of
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Souvarine, a
Russian anarchist and political Ă©migrĂ© who has also come to Montsou to seek a living in the pits, and Rasseneur, a pub owner. Ătienne's simplistic understanding of socialist politics and their rousing effect on him are very reminiscent of the rebel SilvĂšre in the first novel in the cycle,
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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
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By the time of Zola's death, the novel had come to be recognized as his undisputed masterpiece. At his funeral crowds of workers gathered, cheering the cortĂšge with shouts of "Germinal! Germinal!". Since then the book has come to symbolize working class causes and to this day retains a special place
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capable of exploding into rage under the influence of drink or strong passions. Zola keeps his theorizing in the background and Ătienne's motivations are much more natural as a result. He embraces socialist principles, reading large amounts of working class movement literature and fraternizing with
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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
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persuaded him otherwise. The young migrant worker arrives at the forbidding coal mining town of
Montsou in the bleak area of the far north of France to earn a living as a miner. Sacked from his previous job on the railways for assaulting a superior, Ătienne befriends the veteran miner Maheu, who
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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
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While this is going on, Ătienne also falls for Maheu's daughter
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and is meant to evoke imagery of germination, new growth and fertility. Accordingly, Zola ends the novel on a note of hope and one that has provided inspiration to socialist and reformist causes of all kinds throughout the years since its first publication:
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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 modern translations are currently in print and widely available.
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Des hommes poussaient, une armée noire, vengeresse, qui germait lentement dans les sillons, grandissant pour les récoltes du siÚcle futur, et dont la germination allait faire bientÎt éclater la terre.
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Men were springing forth, a black avenging army, germinating slowly in the furrows, growing towards the harvests of the next century, and their germination would soon overturn the earth.
592:, (2019) is a Role Playing Video Game featuring a dispute and unsolved murder between the stevedoring Labor movement and the private company who works with them. The creators
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as a source of major inspiration. This game won the 2019 BAFTA game awards for best narrative, soundtrack, and debut game from a company.
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196:, by Ămile Zola, in French. Part I - Chapter 1. LibriVox recording by Françoise.
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finds him somewhere to stay and gets him a job pushing the carts down the pit.
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The novel's central character is Ătienne
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Havelock Ellis (1894), Peter
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695:"Disco Elysium - FAQ - Inspiration & Recommendations"
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The novel has been filmed a number of times, including:
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Works originally published in Gil Blas (periodical)
644:The Social Impact of the Novel: A Reference Guide
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522:(1993), a large-scale production directed by
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580:. Hoëbeke Editions. Paris. 1993
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1203:Human Desire
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1155:The Struggle
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1072:L'Enfant roi
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1450:(2016 film)
1442:(1937 film)
1380:(1995 film)
1377:Cruel Train
1099:L'Assommoir
1030:Non-fiction
911:Pot-Bouille
890:L'Assommoir
793:(in French)
744:(in French)
598:have cited
487: [
478:, starring
463:, starring
418:Adaptations
358:The title,
297:L'Assommoir
230:The title (
1464:Categories
1417:Naturalism
974:La DĂ©bĂącle
829:Ămile Zola
701:25 January
607:References
509:Mark Jones
480:Jean Sorel
428:The Strike
232:pronounced
207:Ămile Zola
47:Translator
41:Ămile Zola
1299:In Secret
1123:The Earth
1064:L'Ouragan
532:Miou-Miou
395:Tom Wolfe
132:paperback
85:Publisher
20:Germinal
1413:(father)
1283:Germinal
1243:Germinal
1219:Gervaise
1139:L'Argent
1107:Germinal
1056:Messidor
1048:Libretti
967:L'Argent
946:La Terre
932:Germinal
855:La Curée
780:LibriVox
775:Germinal
761:(1894) (
750:Germinal
735:Germinal
721:Germinal
600:Germinal
564:Tributes
557:Germinal
519:Germinal
505:Germinal
471:Germinal
456:Germinal
407:Germinal
403:Germinal
382:Germinal
360:Germinal
332:La Terre
325:(1871).
308:Germinal
270:â
224:Gil Blas
219:Germinal
202:Germinal
194:Germinal
128:hardback
55:Language
1404:Related
1318:Le RĂȘve
953:Le RĂȘve
939:L'Ćuvre
753:at the
679:5 March
626:5 March
372:itself.
290:edition
243:of the
126:Print (
1334:Lazare
1302:(2013)
1294:(2009)
1291:Thirst
1286:(1993)
1278:(1985)
1270:(1982)
1262:(1970)
1254:(1966)
1246:(1963)
1238:(1957)
1230:(1957)
1222:(1956)
1214:(1955)
1206:(1954)
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1190:(1944)
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1166:(1934)
1158:(1931)
1150:(1928)
1142:(1928)
1134:(1926)
1126:(1921)
1118:(1920)
1110:(1913)
1102:(1909)
1083:(1916)
1075:(1905)
1067:(1901)
1059:(1897)
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391:Denain
288:French
257:miners
249:Germen
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108:France
63:Series
58:French
37:Author
595:ZA/UM
511:and
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387:Anzin
253:Latin
251:is a
154:843.8
139:Pages
79:Novel
75:Genre
1275:Nana
1211:Nana
1187:Nana
1163:Nana
1131:Nana
904:Nana
703:2024
681:2023
649:ISBN
628:2023
538:and
536:Lens
530:and
497:and
447:and
177:Nana
130:and
118:1894
100:1885
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