Reviews

ژرمینال by Émile Zola

camiloalcantara's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Incredible story that shows how long and painful has been the worker's struggle and how necessary is to change the current system.

jordii's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Ein weiteres Schulbuch, aber ich bin froh, es gelesen zu haben. Die Charaktere sind mir teils sehr ans Herz gewachsen. Die Handlung spiegelt die damalige Zeit sehr gut wieder, denn die unterirdischen Lebensbedingungen sind oft auch schwer zu lesen. Es beschönigt nichts. Zola beschreibt alles sehr ausführlich und äußerst genau, deshalb fand ich es zu langgezogen. 

clemo's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

sba_reads's review against another edition

4.0

What?! Amazing! Just read the book! Oh my... I won't even go into details about my feelings. Just read it.

I was recommended this book by one of our literature lecturers as she is a huge fan of all of Zola's works, and she also specialises in class structure in the canon. I'm not sure if it's his writing style or the fact that it's a glimpse into the past in a creative manner, but I was hooked. I love French classic literature so much, and to read this after Maupassant was a delight. I had to sneeze in chapters between studies and I'm glad I did. I will definitely revisit this book over the coming years.

There are a few other Zola books I want to devour, and I only have a few titles so far. He is amazing.

Happy Reading!

mhazz's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

mindyb33's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.0

jayisreading's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

Zola’s Germinal is not a novel that I would normally pick up on my own accord, especially because I’m not particularly interested in the subject matter (though, I guess the average reader probably won’t be that invested in mining in France during the 1800s). When it comes to personal enjoyment, I would say that the novel fell in the middle ground, and I didn’t love or hate it. I think what really won me over, though, was Zola’s socio-political commentary, especially if you take into consideration who and what he may have been engaging with during the period he worked on this novel.

Directly inspired by the miners’ strikes that occurred in the 1860s, Zola crafted a fictional version of a miners’ strike in Northern France to dig deep into class struggle, particularly the exploitation of the working class by the bourgeoisie. There were other ideas that he considered as well, with I think the most surprising being the role of women in these spaces. I will say that the treatment of women in this novel was anything but great (to put it lightly), but I did appreciate Zola’s consideration of how women contributed to the labor movement. The living conditions that Zola described in Germinal were unbelievably bleak, but, in many ways, it did give him the chance to create powerful (even if, at times, heavy-handed) symbols reflecting on struggle and survival, particularly through his characters, notably Étienne and Catherine. On the note of his characters, I appreciated that Zola didn’t follow the good vs. evil model and, instead, chose to place them in murkier spaces.

Again, based on personal enjoyment alone, I would say that I don’t have any strong opinions and found the novel to be just okay. However, I have to fully acknowledge the richness of Zola’s symbolism, graphic details, and commentary in Germinal. I do think it’s worth picking this up, should you be able to handle the overwhelming bleakness, as it is a great exploration of class struggle while also giving a glimpse into how people such as Zola may have been reacting to Marxism. I was also a little surprised by his prose, which I found a bit different from his contemporaries. Relatedly, I thought it was more accessible to a modern reader who might be intimidated by nineteenth-century French literature, should that mean anything. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

amirmasoud's review

5.0

شرح رنج‌های کارگران معدن در فرانسه‌ی پس از انقلاب صنعتی. با نثری مجذوب کننده.

hungerford's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

bibliotequeish's review against another edition

2.0

Well... I didn't like it.
I think I may not have been in the proper mindset for such a dark story... and this is DARK.

This is probably a book I will revisit in a couple years and see if my opinion changes.
I mean the first time I read Catcher in the rye I hated it.
I re read it a couple years later and Loved it.

For right now, its a two stars, but will put it on me re-read list.