Germinal by Émile Zola: Book Beginnings on Fridays, First Line Friday, The Friday 56, and Book Blogger Hop

Today's Featured Book: 

Germinal

 by Émile Zola

Genre: Fiction

Published: 1885

Page Count: 592 pages

Summary: 

"Etienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, is a clever but uneducated young man with a dangerous temper. Forced to take a back-breaking job at Le Voreux mine when he cannot get other work, he discovers that his fellow miners are ill, hungry, and in debt, unable to feed and clothe their families. When conditions in the mining community deteriorate even further, Lantier finds himself leading a strike that could mean starvation or salvation for all."

 

BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY is hosted by Rose City Reader. What book are you happy about reading this week? Please share the opening sentence (or so) on BOOK BEGINNINGS ON FRIDAY! Add the link to your blog or social media post and visit other blogs to see what others are reading.

Happy Friday and welcome to the FIRST LINE FRIDAY, hosted by Reading is My Superpower! It’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line.

"Over the open plain, beneath a starless sky as dark and thick as ink, a man walked alone along the highway from Marchiennes to Montsou,2 a straight paved road ten kilometres in length, intersecting the beetroot-fields. He could not even see the black soil before him, and only felt the immense flat horizon by the gusts of March wind, squalls as strong as on the sea, and frozen from sweeping leagues of marsh and naked earth. No tree could be seen against the sky, and the road unrolled as straight as a pier in the midst of the blinding spray of darkness."

THE FRIDAY 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice, but Freda is currently taking a break and Anne of Head Full of Books is filling in. To play, open a book and turn to page 56 (or 56% on your e-reader). Find a sentence or two and post them, along with the book title and author. Then link up on Head Full of Books and visit others in the linky. 

'AT FOUR O‘CLOCK THE moon had set, and the night was very dark. Everything was still asleep at Deneulin’s; the old brick house stood mute and gloomy, with closed doors and windows, at the end of the large ill-kept garden which separated it from the Jean-Bart mine. The other frontage faced the deserted road to Vandame, a large country town, about three kilometres off, hidden behind the forest."

First Thoughts

I'm at only 37% as I write this post, but my first thoughts are how remarkable I find it that Zola chose to tell this story of the poor attempting to move against those who profited from their work. He was not popular for doing so; when Zola's own stage adaptation was about to go into production, theater censors banned it. 

I also am thinking about a discussion we had last night at book club. We were trying to come up with titles for 2025. "No, that's too long," was a frequent objection to a nomination. "Too bleak," was another. I did not dare to suggest Germinal.

My Review

Étienne Lantier finds work in at the Le Voreux coal mine in northern France. He soon sees the struggles of the miners, working, usually from childhood on, in passages under the earth prone to collapse and in which the air can lead to asphixiation, for wages that don't even pay for enough food to keep the family from starvation and for enough coal to keep the family warm. Conditions grow worse, and Étienne becomes a leader in the coal miners' community, urging the miners to strike. And the miners do strike, but what will be the result?

I have just finished this book, and I feel exhausted, somewhat defeated. The lives of all that Étienne comes to know are lives of struggle and pain: Vincent Maheu, who has worked in the coal mines for over fifty years; Maheude, Maheu's very tough wife; Catherine Maheu, their daughter, still only a child at sixteen, who takes up with a cruel lover, Chaval; Henri, Leonore, Jeanlin, Zacharie, Alzire---the other Maheu children, all who suffer deeply because of the mine and the strike; the Gregores, the spoiled and clueless owners of the mine; Monsieur Hennebeau, manager of the mine; Maigrat, the owner of the grocery store, who uses his ownership of the store to get favors from women; and Souvarine, a Russian revolutionary who mentors Étienne in labor relations.  

Zola does not drop his eyes from the brutalities of real life in the mines in France in the 1880s. I dare you to read this book and not come away from it changed.

 

The purpose of THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, and befriend other bloggers. THE BOOK BLOGGER HOP is hosted by Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.    

July 26th-August1st - Do you have a favorite novel that captures the enchantment of summer nights or has unforgettable moments set under the stars? (submitted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer)

If I ever get it written, my memoir about my summer working in Yellowstone Park will capture the enchantment of summer nights and have unforgettable moments set under the stars. If I ever get it written...