Author:Emile Zola,Roger Pearson

Considered by André Gide to be one of the ten greatest novels in the French language, Émile Zola's Germinal is a brutal depiction of the poverty of a mining community in northern France
Étienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, is a clever but uneducated young man with a dangerous temper. Compelled to take a back-breakin 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. The thirteenth novel in Zola's great Rougon-Macquart sequence, Germinal expresses outrage at the exploitation of the many by the few, but also shows humanity's capacity for compassion and hope.
Translated with an introduction by Roger Pearson in Penguin Classics
If you enjoyed Germinal, you might like Zola's Thérèse Raquin, also available in Penguin Classics.
Extraordinary prose
—— Sunday TimesAs Kipling was to the secrets of the jungle, so is Baker to modern domesticity, equally ready with fascinating observation
—— Daily TelegraphThere is a good deal more everyday wonder here than in a hundred original miscellanies
—— ObserverThis might be Baker's best yet - you're in for a treat
—— Evening StandardLike the small, agreeable sensations it so deftly evokes, this modestly scaled story is a pleasure that can add cheer to an entire day
—— SpectatorUtterly convincing and compelling ... A stunning feat of the imagination and an absolute must-read
—— Steven PressfieldDenys Johnson-Davies...the leading Arabic-English translator of our time
—— Edward Said