Germinal

THE GRAND TEXTS OF THE 19TH HEADING To follow the fate of Étienne Lantier, Zola visits the coal basins, descends into the wells, studies Marx and Proudhon, inquires about proletarian struggles. Minor at the Voreux pit in the North, Étienne takes a pension with the Maheu, the father-to-son workers. At their side, he struggles for their emancipation and, when the strike breaks out, he vainly tries to organize the social struggle. But hunger soon leads the miners into violence and the troupe shoots at the rioters. The mine is flooded by the anarchist Souvarine. The consequences will be bloody. Étienne will fail, to resume the fight later. The nascent spring awakens in him the hope that a "germinal" will finally bring justice to the end... @ Available at 12-21 THE NUMERIC EDITOR