1924. With an essay by Francis Gribble. Zola, French writer, critic and leader of the naturalist school. Zola's work often portray groups of humans in the grip of circumstances beyond their control, often destined to be destroyed in monumental catastrophes. His masterpiece Germinal was an eloquent protest against the inhuman working conditions common in late Nineteenth-Century European factories and mines. In the story, Etienne Lantier is an out-of-work railway worker who by sheer luck has secured a job in the coal mine called Le Voreux (a name suggesting a voracious beast which consumes workers wholesale). As a newcomer he attempts improvement through worker resistance, including a strike with unforeseen and tragic consequences. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.