'Germinal', often considered Zola's masterpiece, tells the story of Etienne Lantier, a bright however uneducated young man with a volatile temperament who has just lost his job as a railway worker. He sets out for a small mining town where he finds a new job as a cart pusher. But the incessant clashes between the capitalists and the working class, alongside the appalling working conditions and dire poverty the workers are forced to endure, slowly but surely bring the narrative to its only possible denouement: revolution.
Abounding with vivid descriptions of the miner's inner and outer worlds, as well as the violent and often unjustified impulses of man, 'Germinal' is a superbly written, unforgettable novel. 'Germinal' voices outrage at the downtrodding of the many by the few, but also displays humanity's limitless capacity for compassion and hope.
Widely regarded as the founding father of scientific naturalism in literature, which aimed to describe the human condition as it really is, Zola was considered an influence by many prominent artists and writers of his time and the coming era, such as Vincent van Gogh, Tom Wolfe and John Steinbeck.