Fabulous!

Zola’s story of the conflict between labor and management still reverberates in our times. As the grandson of an immigrant driven to work in the mines at the beginning of the 20th century, the imagery really struck close to home. The plot is beautifully constructed and will hold your attention from the beginning to the dramatic end. The reading really brings the novel to life. Don’t pass this one by!

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Good reading of a great 19th Century novel

Would you listen to Germinal again? Why?

This is great novel that seems to be virtually unknown to American readers. It is both a vivid and convincing account of the everyday lives of miners, as told from within, and the tale of a heroic, doomed strike and a catastrophic mine disaster. Although it is quite long, it is beautifully written, full of complex and engaging characters, and carries the reader forward with great momentum. In this production, it is well read. Among other things, the reader handles the French names comfortably.

What other book might you compare Germinal to and why?

I can think of no 19th Century novel in English that is comparable. It delves more deeply into the texture of everyday lives of working class men and women then anything by Dickens and with fewer illusions. It treats sex, both good sex and bad sex, simply as another fact of the lives of the characters without either euphemisms (other than those used by characters themselves) or prurience. There are no artificial happy endings, but the novel is not dreary.

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well performed

this is a masterful performance of Zola's utterly depressing tale of the plight of French coal miners in the Second empire. Best audiobook I've ever read.

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Excellent reading of a French classic

This has been a favorite novel for many years. I have read it at least three times, and am now enjoying an excellent rendition by Leighton Pugh (as is true of most Naxos audiobooks, the production is first class). The story centers around the plight of the working class (here, coal miners) of northern France in the second half of the nineteenth century. Zola details their squalid living conditions, inadequate pay, and dangerous work. But the book is not propaganda. Although the owners tend to be selfish, smug, and lacking insight into the workers’ inescapable poverty under the capitalism of that time, Zola never demonizes them. Neither are the workers’ faults ignored. Love, violence, revenge, and sabotage all come into play. The book is probably the best-known and certainly one of the best of the 20-volume Rougon-Macquart series.

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A masterwork

I’ve read this book over and over and it never fails to haunt. The miserable conditions of this coal mining village are fascinating in their dreadfulness and the strike to improve their lot is inspiring and heartbreaking. Zola’s attention to detail is astounding. From the first sentence to the last you are their for the journey.

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Deeply moving and dramatic tale read by a phenomenal narrator

A wonderfully narrated version of Zola's intense political and personal drama about French miners, the mine owners and a growing workers' revolution.

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Outstanding Narration and Content

It has been a long time since I enjoyed a story as much as this one.

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Don't.

I had to read this book for class and it is the absolute worst book I have ever read. The narration is decent and really the only reason I got through it. This book is so long and so boring and I hated every character. Just read a summary. Don't suffer through this awful book.