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In Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series, the main
characters are all descended from a single matriarch,
Adelaïde Fouque. Through them, Zola explores his
theories of heredity—the way in which inherited traits,
such as alcoholism or mental illness, play themselves out
differently but inexorably in generation after generation.See also: Tess of the D’Urbervilles 192–93 ■ Far from the Madding Crowd 200 ■
A Doll’s House 200 ■ The Red Badge of Courage 202 ■ Sister Carrie 203DEPICTING REAL LIFE
Zola deploys a forensic realism to
evoke the mine, which becomes
almost a character in itself. The use
of imagery and metaphors give it a
heightened reality—it is an ogre, a
voracious monster, sucking in and
devouring the insectlike workers.Hope for the future
The novel’s main protagonist is
the educated but volatile Étienne
Lantier, the son of an alcoholic, who
loses his job after assaulting his
boss. Étienne arrives in Montsou,
where he finds work in the mine.
Wary of an inherited propensity for
violence, he tries to avoid alcohol.
His position as an outsider allows
him to evaluate the suffering and
injustice he sees, and to pity theplight of the people. As the novel
progresses, poverty and working
conditions worsen, to such an
extent that the workers go on
strike, with the idealistic Étienne
as their leader; when riots and
violent repression ensue, the miners
blame him. Despite the brutality
and desolation, Étienne retains his
belief in the potential germination
of a better society.
Dominated by Zola, literary
naturalism was a relatively short-
lived movement in Europe, but it
went on to flourish in the US, where
authors such as Stephen Crane,
Jack London, Theodore Dreiser, and
Upton Sinclair explored in diverse
ways the effects of environment on
their characters. ■Adelaïde
Fouque
The Fortune of the
Rougons (1871)Gervaise Macquart
L’Assommoir (1877)Antoine
Macquart
The Fortune of the
Rougons (1871)Jean Macquart
The Earth (1887),
The Debacle (1892)Lisa Macquart
The Belly of
Paris (1873)Pauline Quenu
The Joy of Life
(1884)Jacques Lantier
La Bête humaine
(1890)Claude Lantier
The Masterpiece (1886)Anna Coupeau
Nana (1880)Étienne Lantier
Germinal (1885)Émile Zola
Émile Zola was born in Paris
in 1840; his father died in 1847,
leaving the family to struggle
financially. In 1862 Zola got
a job at the publishing firm
Hachette and supplemented
his income by writing critical
articles for periodicals. Three
years later, his reputation
established, he made the
decision to support himself
by literary work alone, and
in 1865 published his first
novel, Claude’s Confession.
In 1898 Zola famously
intervened in the Dreyfus
Affair, in which a Jewish
army officer was wrongfully
convicted of treason: Zola
wrote an open letter critical of
the general staff that became
known as “J ’Ac c u s e.” This act
led to his being found guilty
of libel and he fled to England.
He was allowed to return to
France in 1899. Zola died in
1902, from carbon monoxide
poisoning due to a blocked
flue. Some believe that his
death may not have been an
accident, but instead the
work of anti-Dreyfusards.Other key works1867 Thérèse Raquin
1877 L’Assommoir
1890 La Bête humaineUS_190-191_Germinal.indd 191 08/10/2015 13:07