Emil ZOLA's novel Germinal

Places to visit | Background information

Emil ZOLA's novel "Germinal"

Realistic novel set in the North's coalmines
The author: Emil ZOLA 1840-1902
Friend of the Impressionists
His first novels
Themes of his novels
Writing 'Germinal'
Research in Valenciennes
The strike in the novel
The impact of the novel

Zola writing at the big table he used as a desk

mine
A big company coal mine in the mid 19th century - the time that Germinal was set in. See diagram of 19th century coal-mine

Realistic novel set in the North's coalmines
Emil ZOLA's novel "Germinal" was written in 1884-5, but set 20 years earlier. He spent barely a week in the North, but his novel has moved generations of readers with its graphic portrayals of the miseries of the wretched lives of miners and their families. In English translation it has sold 10,000 copies a year since the 'fifties. In French it counted amongst the best-selling masterpieces in Zola's prolific output. Back to top

The author: Emil ZOLA 1840-1902
Like Charles Dickens, Zola knew poverty in his youth. Dickens stuck labels on tins of bootblacking in a factory. Zola's widowed mother was impoverished when speculators bankrupted his father's company that was building a canal to supply fresh water to the town of Aix in southern France. Back to top

Friend of the Impressionists
Zola went to live in the seediest part of Paris. He was friends with rising young Impressionist painters, then regarded as outrageous rebels: Manet, Monet , Degas, Pissaro - and especially his boyhood friend from Aix, Cezanne. He helped make his reputation as a controversial journalist by espousing the Impressionists' cause in 1863, when their paintings were all rejected by the jury for the annual Salon exhibition. Back to top

His first novels
Literacy rose dramatically in 19th century France: by 1850 over 60% of the French could read, compared with 20% in 1820 - the result of educational reforms. This created a huge market for newspapers and for popular novels - "realistic" stories, with obvious plots, violent melodramas, full of action, and simply written. Victor Hugo's novel "Les Miserables" published in 1862 was an instant success. Zola had gained notoriety as an outspoken columnist. Unable to find more work on newspapers - which were subject to frigid censorship- he turned to writing novels to make money. Back to top

Themes of his novels
A reviewer of Zola's early novels advised him to seek out social themes instead of personal domestic dramas - like Dickens, Balzac or Shakespeare. In response, Zola planned a family saga initially of 10 books, that eventually expanded to 20 and took most of his writing life to produce. The family would symbolise major themes of the violent social changes transforming France under the Second Empire:

the huge gaps between the 'haves' and 'have-nots';

wasteful extravagance next to widespread grinding poverty;

corruption in high places, with whole sections of society being exploited.

Zola explored the political consequences: the class struggle, and the pressures to resort to violence and terrorism. He clearly took sides in the contemporary debates on:

science vs. religion;

education vs. oppression;

labour vs. capital.

But he fell short of advocating socialism, and his message seemed to be that workers and bosses were both being swept along by an irresistible tide of social change. Back to top

Writing 'Germinal'
Zola spent his working life as a writer; the vivid detail in his novels came from painstakingly thorough research. In 1877 number 7 in the saga, 'L'Assommoir', was his first big-selling success. It was the first French novel to feature working class characters - English translations were called 'The Gin Palace', 'The Dram Shop' or 'The Drunkard'.

By the time no.13 was being planned, Zola was financially prosperous. He decided to set this life-and-death conflict between labour and capital in a coal mine. Miners strikes, where strikes often involved hardship and violence; the dark tunnels of the mine offered many dramatic and symbolic possibilities. Back to top

Research in Valenciennes
zola on train strike
1. Zola's research visits helped him add authentic detail to his novels. He had a great talent for being able to imagine people's feelings, and what their lives were like, after observing them only briefly.
2. Strikers on the march. Unions were illegal at the time Germinal was set.

Contrast between the hovels put up by the company for miners; and smart villas provided for managers
Zola was taken by the local left-wing MP, a university lecturer, to visit a strike at Anzin, a dreary black mining community on the outskirts of Valenciennes. He interviewed miners and their families, visited their homes, went down a mine, and listened to strike meetings. He soon got the feel of how the miners were permanently hungry, living brutish lives in overcrowded cottages, often diseased through dangerous working conditions, haunted by debt, insecurity, and the risk of total ruin by a disabling accident. They were scarcely educated, knew no other life , and had neither the energy, money or organisation to do anything about it. Their violence was usually aimless and ineffective. Their main escape was in sex and alcohol - in bars provided by the management to keep them permanently stupefied. See diagram of 19th century coal-mine

The novel's title came from the name of the seventh month in the Revolutionary calendar - Germinal was the period of April - May, symbolising the springtime of social revolution. . Back to top

The strike in the novel

1. Counting house - miners' pay depended on records of how much coal they dug - with 'fines' arbitrarily deducted for 'poor quality' coal (with stones mixed in), and skimped pit propping.
2. Mine-owners ran bars at the pit head where miners received their wages
3. Pit-ponies lived their whole sad lives underground
See diagram of 19th century coal-mine

The strike was caused by conflict over pay systems. Miners were then not employed directly by the mine-owner. The leader of each 'gang' bid for a seam of coal in an auction. The gang was paid only for the coal it dug out, so they begrudged time wasted on putting up pit-props to hold up the . Tunnels often caved in, causing bad accidents. The mining company feared the whole mine would collapse, so said they would pay gangs separately for timbering work, and for coal dug out. Miners suspected it was a trick to reduce their pay, and went on strike.

Zola also described the brutalising effects of women and children being employed underground, to haul away the coal as the men dug it out. He was moved by the plight of pit ponies who lived permanently in the dark tunnels down the mine.

However he was to some tastes almost too impartial in portraying the owners and managers: they were "trying the best they could". They would "like to pay better wages", but competition and falling coal prices prevented them. Owners of small mines feared the financial power of big mining companies with distant uncaring shareholders. Managers were better-off, but if they gave charity to ignorant miners their handouts probably would have been wasted in a bar. Back to top

The impact of the novel
With 'Germinal', Zola succeeded in making the impact he had planned. He know that a dramatic novel would get polite society talking, where boring reports of distant strikes in newspapers were just ignored. Some critics were shocked at his brutish portrayal of the miners, and deplored their morals - they "deserved what they got". Others said it was an "old story" - things were no longer so bad. The novel was set in the 1860s. By the 1880s when it was written, socialism and strikes were a political force and had made some advances. Employing women down mines was forbidden in 1874, though children of 12 still worked a 12-hour day until the 1890s. Unions were legalised in 1884.

The North was becoming a hot-bed of socialism, voting increasingly for left-wing MPs, town councils and mayors. Back to top

Places to visit:
Historical Mining Centre - go down a coalmine that was used in film versions of "Germinal"

Related background information
Rise & Fall of Coalmining
Diagram of 19th century coal-mine
Victor Hugo - author of “Les Misérables”: another famous French writer in the 19th century, whose writings were full of social comment.

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Places to visit \| Background information
*Emil ZOLA's novel "Germinal"*

A big company coal mine in the mid 19th century - the time that Germinal was set in. See diagram of 19th century coal-mine	Realistic novel set in the North's coalmines Emil ZOLA's novel "Germinal" was written in 1884-5, but set 20 years earlier. He spent barely a week in the North, but his novel has moved generations of readers with its graphic portrayals of the miseries of the wretched lives of miners and their families. In English translation it has sold 10,000 copies a year since the 'fifties. In French it counted amongst the best-selling masterpieces in Zola's prolific output. Back to top
The author: Emil ZOLA 1840-1902 Like Charles Dickens, Zola knew poverty in his youth. Dickens stuck labels on tins of bootblacking in a factory. Zola's widowed mother was impoverished when speculators bankrupted his father's company that was building a canal to supply fresh water to the town of Aix in southern France. Back to top Friend of the Impressionists Zola went to live in the seediest part of Paris. He was friends with rising young Impressionist painters, then regarded as outrageous rebels: Manet, Monet , Degas, Pissaro - and especially his boyhood friend from Aix, Cezanne. He helped make his reputation as a controversial journalist by espousing the Impressionists' cause in 1863, when their paintings were all rejected by the jury for the annual Salon exhibition. Back to top His first novels Literacy rose dramatically in 19th century France: by 1850 over 60% of the French could read, compared with 20% in 1820 - the result of educational reforms. This created a huge market for newspapers and for popular novels - "realistic" stories, with obvious plots, violent melodramas, full of action, and simply written. Victor Hugo's novel "Les Miserables" published in 1862 was an instant success. Zola had gained notoriety as an outspoken columnist. Unable to find more work on newspapers - which were subject to frigid censorship- he turned to writing novels to make money. Back to top Themes of his novels A reviewer of Zola's early novels advised him to seek out social themes instead of personal domestic dramas - like Dickens, Balzac or Shakespeare. In response, Zola planned a family saga initially of 10 books, that eventually expanded to 20 and took most of his writing life to produce. The family would symbolise major themes of the violent social changes transforming France under the Second Empire: the huge gaps between the 'haves' and 'have-nots'; wasteful extravagance next to widespread grinding poverty; corruption in high places, with whole sections of society being exploited. Zola explored the political consequences: the class struggle, and the pressures to resort to violence and terrorism. He clearly took sides in the contemporary debates on: science vs. religion; education vs. oppression; labour vs. capital. But he fell short of advocating socialism, and his message seemed to be that workers and bosses were both being swept along by an irresistible tide of social change. Back to top Writing 'Germinal' Zola spent his working life as a writer; the vivid detail in his novels came from painstakingly thorough research. In 1877 number 7 in the saga, 'L'Assommoir', was his first big-selling success. It was the first French novel to feature working class characters - English translations were called 'The Gin Palace', 'The Dram Shop' or 'The Drunkard'. By the time no.13 was being planned, Zola was financially prosperous. He decided to set this life-and-death conflict between labour and capital in a coal mine. Miners strikes, where strikes often involved hardship and violence; the dark tunnels of the mine offered many dramatic and symbolic possibilities. Back to top
Research in Valenciennes 1. Zola's research visits helped him add authentic detail to his novels. He had a great talent for being able to imagine people's feelings, and what their lives were like, after observing them only briefly. 2. Strikers on the march. Unions were illegal at the time Germinal was set.
Contrast between the hovels put up by the company for miners; and smart villas provided for managers Zola was taken by the local left-wing MP, a university lecturer, to visit a strike at Anzin, a dreary black mining community on the outskirts of Valenciennes. He interviewed miners and their families, visited their homes, went down a mine, and listened to strike meetings. He soon got the feel of how the miners were permanently hungry, living brutish lives in overcrowded cottages, often diseased through dangerous working conditions, haunted by debt, insecurity, and the risk of total ruin by a disabling accident. They were scarcely educated, knew no other life , and had neither the energy, money or organisation to do anything about it. Their violence was usually aimless and ineffective. Their main escape was in sex and alcohol - in bars provided by the management to keep them permanently stupefied. See diagram of 19th century coal-mine The novel's title came from the name of the seventh month in the Revolutionary calendar - Germinal was the period of April - May, symbolising the springtime of social revolution. . Back to top
The strike in the novel 1. Counting house - miners' pay depended on records of how much coal they dug - with 'fines' arbitrarily deducted for 'poor quality' coal (with stones mixed in), and skimped pit propping. 2. Mine-owners ran bars at the pit head where miners received their wages 3. Pit-ponies lived their whole sad lives underground See diagram of 19th century coal-mine
The strike was caused by conflict over pay systems. Miners were then not employed directly by the mine-owner. The leader of each 'gang' bid for a seam of coal in an auction. The gang was paid only for the coal it dug out, so they begrudged time wasted on putting up pit-props to hold up the . Tunnels often caved in, causing bad accidents. The mining company feared the whole mine would collapse, so said they would pay gangs separately for timbering work, and for coal dug out. Miners suspected it was a trick to reduce their pay, and went on strike. Zola also described the brutalising effects of women and children being employed underground, to haul away the coal as the men dug it out. He was moved by the plight of pit ponies who lived permanently in the dark tunnels down the mine. However he was to some tastes almost too impartial in portraying the owners and managers: they were "trying the best they could". They would "like to pay better wages", but competition and falling coal prices prevented them. Owners of small mines feared the financial power of big mining companies with distant uncaring shareholders. Managers were better-off, but if they gave charity to ignorant miners their handouts probably would have been wasted in a bar. Back to top The impact of the novel With 'Germinal', Zola succeeded in making the impact he had planned. He know that a dramatic novel would get polite society talking, where boring reports of distant strikes in newspapers were just ignored. Some critics were shocked at his brutish portrayal of the miners, and deplored their morals - they "deserved what they got". Others said it was an "old story" - things were no longer so bad. The novel was set in the 1860s. By the 1880s when it was written, socialism and strikes were a political force and had made some advances. Employing women down mines was forbidden in 1874, though children of 12 still worked a 12-hour day until the 1890s. Unions were legalised in 1884. The North was becoming a hot-bed of socialism, voting increasingly for left-wing MPs, town councils and mayors. Back to top

	Places to visit: Historical Mining Centre - go down a coalmine that was used in film versions of "Germinal"
	Related background information Rise & Fall of Coalmining Diagram of 19th century coal-mine Victor Hugo - author of “Les Misérables”: another famous French writer in the 19th century, whose writings were full of social comment.