I wanted to read this novel since a year or so and finally made it. I absolutely loved Zola's writing. Germinal is a masterpiece and I am happy to have read it. It is the thirteenth novel of the famous 'Rougon-Macquart' series. This is my first book in the series and first by Emile Zola. There is no need to read the series in order. But I would love to read it so, somewhere in the near future.
It was first published in 1885. Zola wrote this book after a year of research and travels to the mining countries in Northern France. It exposes the pathetic life of mining community in a small French town called Montsou. The novel's title comes from the name of the 7th month in the revolutionary calendar. Germinal was the period of April-May, symbolizing the spring time of revolution.
The protagonist Etienne, having lost his job, reaches Voreux, a coal mine near Montsou in search of a job, almost dying of hunger. Though he is a mechanic, he takes the job as a miner and becomes part of Maheu's crew. The mines are described in detail. Zola describes the village of the mining community, which is named Two hundred and forty. He shows vividly the horrific living conditions of the mining community describing in detail the house and the daily routine of the Maheu family. Etienne is attracted towards Catherine, Maheu's daughter who is friendly. But Chaval takes Catherine as his girl friend. Though Catherine is not fond of Chaval, she thinks that it is her fate and she has no alternative. Chaval is a brutal man, and injures Catherine whenever he gets chance. Etienne and Chaval become rivals straightaway and Zola goes on to tell a disturbing triangular love relationship. Etienne is educated and is disturbed by the near slave life of the miners. He stays at Rassaneurs, where he befriends Sauvarine, a Russian anarchist. Etienne seeds revolutionary ideas among miners. He finally leads the workers to strike, when the wages are reduced. The strike which starts as silent revolution, soon turns violent. Though the strike ends with no imminent change in the living conditions of the miner, zola ends the novel with hope.
"Now the April sun, in the open sky, was shining in his glory, and warming the pregnant earth. From its fertile flanks life was leaping out, buds were bursting into green leaves, and the fields were quivering with the growth of the grass. On every side seeds were swelling, stretching out, cracking the plain, filled by the need of heat and light. An overflow of sap was mixed with whispering voices, the sound of the germs expanding in a great kiss. Again and again, more and more distinctly, as though they were approaching the soil, the mates were hammering. In the fiery rays of the sun on this youthful morning the country seemed full of that sound. 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."
