%%id:159%% %%start:review%% ## Review Started on 16/07/21. Germinal was out in 1885 and is the 13th (on 20) book of Rougon Macquart's serie. Etienne Lantier is the main character and the story takes place in the mine of Montsou, in the north of France. ## Chapter notes ### Part I The part one, divided in 6 chapters, is mostly an overview of all the main characters and take place in the mine and spread over one complete day and is centered on Etienne and the Maheu family. Within this chapter, we also get a very good overview of what was the work in mine. Zola were very well documented about this. It is said that he went to visit a mine in the north of France to better understand the work condition, and that it was this visit that inspired him Germinal. The first part is pure Zola: a writing full of raw descriptions and details, with an emphasis on rude things. We can find that style in [Thérèse Raquin](Thérèse%20Raquin%20-%20Émile%20Zola.md). #### I Etienne Lantier, 21 years old, strong despite his slim muscles, arrive in "Le Voreux", a coal mine in the north of France. He meet Bonnemort (can be litteraly translated to Gooddeath), an old carter, nicknamed like this because he escaped death three times: 1. He escaped a gas blast explosion 2. He narrowly missed being buried 3. His belly got swollen by water He said having worked from 8 years old in the mine, until 58 years old. So 45 years in the mine and 5 as a carter. Bonnemort is the archetype of a miner that had suffered from his work but don't really know it because he litteraly didn't have any comparaison points. He is in very bad health condition, spitting black spots of coal from his lungs every 5 minutes. He's patiently waiting his retirement and the 180 francs promised of pension. That first chapter state the difficulty of work as a miner through the health of Bonnemort and set the scene. #### II We're now discovering a 12-person family of mining employees, the Maheu. Bonnemort, from his real name Vincent Maheu, is the elder. A very modest family, whom Zola describe as sick, earning very low income, so much so that they do not have enough to eat. #### III Etienne goes to the miner in order to find some work. He finally meet the Maheu family. Catherine, one of the daughter, help him by giving him a work as a miner. It's now Etienne's first discovery of the mine. Zola describe it with vivid details that highlight the awefull conditions in which people work, even from 10 years old. 545m deep with three levels, the first at 315m. Drastic changes of temperature and pressure. At certain places, knee level of cold water and mud. A lot of very tight passages... Etienne first thought Catherine was a boy, due to her dressing. He seems to have a crush for her. #### IV Etienne is now working as a miner with Catherine, under the supervision of Chaval and Maheu. Zola describe how hard the work is underneath. They're bent all the time under very humide rocks that let fall water on their head, in a 35°c environement, and with the air filled with gas emanating from the coal (at 90% methane). They know that there is a big concentration of natural inflammable gas, thanks to a Davy lamp that shine in blue to indicate its presence and reduce the danger of explosion. At 10am, they had their lunch. As Etienne is new here, he didn't have any food, so Catherine shared some bread and coffee with him. We learn more about these two in this chapter: Etienne had been fired because he stapped his boss while he was drunk (the way he talks about it let hear that he's an alcoholic, or at least, have some anger management problems when he's drunk). The more he talks with Catherine, the more he finds her attractive, even with her face blackened by coal. He starts asking her age and if she has a boyfriend. Catherine is 15 years old, and she works as a harrow (trad. [Herscheur·euse (FR)](Herscheur·euse.md)). When she said she doesn't have a boyfriend, Chaval come and kiss her by force. This says a lot of girls, *worst*, childs condition back then, on moral and relationships. Etienne's mother was a divorced/abandoned laundress in Paris La Goutte d'Or. #### V We're understanding more about how the miners are paid and treated by their hierachy. They have to timber (put wood to support the roof) the flaws in order to avoid landslides, but they're paid only on the weight of coal they bring back to the surface. The hierarchy is here to constraint them to the timbering work and so, they make miners earn less. There's also a hint on how they treat horses, seems like they take them down in the mine to achieve the carry work. Some even died from fear before arriving at the bottom. That means that, in addition to all the atrocious conditions the miner faced, they also had to deal with dead horses in the mine. #### VI The miners are going back to the top. Maheu and Catherine are taking Etienne to a cabaret keeped by Rasseneur, a former miner who opened that cabaret in challenger to The Company *(trad. La Companie)*. After hesitating, Rasseneur finaly give credit for 15 days to Etienne, so he can take one of his two rooms. He changed his mind because Etienne knew a certain Pluchart, who sent a letter to Rasseneur. Pluchart was one of Etienne's manager in his previous job as a machinist, and also the North Company's secretary. Etienne accepted to stay even if he's already suffering from the work harshness. Certainely to see Catherine again, but also because an anger feeling toward the Grégoire, rich bourgeois and shareholders of the Mine Company exploiting the miners, start to born. ### Part II #### I We now met the Grégoire, the family Montsou's shareholders. They appear to be far from the employees daily routine ; in a wide house, heated, with house staff like cook, teachers, butler... Grégoire's family has two girls called Honorine and Cécile. We also hear about Deneulin, Mr Grégoire's cousin who also herited of Montsou's shares but selled it once it reached 1 million francs to then invest in his own mine "Vendame". This seems to create tensions between the two cousin, as well as it seems to mingle the willing of marrying Cécile. #### II La Maheude have very bad times keeping the house afloat financialy. They don't eat one's fill, so they have to ask money to Mr Maigrat who seems to be the guy who lend money to miners. Sometimes, the miners don't have the finances to give back the money, so they come with their daughter so Mr Maigrat can have “nature advantages”. Zola describe miners reduced to the necessity of prostituting their daughter in order to lend enough money to eat. That said a lot on the financial condition. By coming back to home with her two kids, La Maheude met Mr Grégoire and his family, so start to discuss with them. Mr Grégoire is depicted as a fatalist guy, but still with a bit of empathy. > I understand the work can pay little money, but mminers would have more if they weren't spending their money on alcohol La Maheude kindly explained by agreeing, that often, they just don't have enough money at all, even if his husband isn't drinking. The conversation from the side of Mr Grégoire is depicted as full of clichés and made him appear as deconnected from the reality. #### III We understand during this chapter that some people make visits of the coron to aristocrats like a kind of misery safari, to show people how "well" they treat people. We also met the doctor, who's very rude with La Maheude, refusing to heal her and degrading her. #### IV The maniers family clearly don't eat one's fill. They don't have enough food for everyone, don't eating meat because they can't afford it at all. When they have some, it's for the father only. They're also so poor that they need to shower everyone using the same water. Showers even didn't exist at that time, they was just filling a basin with water heated using the chimney. #### V Zola, the violent one, describe girls mores back then. In this chapter we're following Catherine and hear the story of a place called the "Réquillart". A wasteland where young girls have their affairs with miners. It is described as kind of sexual misery: it's mostly rape and prostituion. Chaval had taken Catherine to walk but sets a trap for her, bringing her to Réquillart to rape her. She begged him, saying that she isn't even in her puberty yet. And this, under the sight of Etienne, that rather than finding this disgusting (still a bit), think he missed the opportunity as she seems like an easy girl. ### Part III #### I Month passed since Etienne arrived in Montsou. He now gets used to the draining and poor work conditions. He now has a new next door neighboor in Rasseneur's cabaret, a russian guy named Souvarine. Etienne has maintained a relationship and letter exchange with Pluchart, who's talking to him about a mouvement/association (kind of) called "Fédération du nord" (litteraly North Federation) and Etienne is particularly interested in the services the association could give to miners if they'll start a strike. Etienne, Souvarine and Rasseneur start to debate and have ideas about rebelion, anarchism and capital hate, influenced by Marx. This came to point, a charcoal crisis is about to start, falling the price and thus the miner salary. #### II Zola described with roughness the kind of drinking party the miners were doing: a lot of beer, men as well as womens and people of any age, smoking, sex, fights... During this one, Etienne started to evangelize and search for adherents around him for his "Caisse de prévoyance" : 20 coins of contribution, that will help miners having money in case of tough times. The idea behind is obviously the departure of a strike once the participative funding had been started. It will be used to pay the miners the necessary time. In his mind, if they have money, they'll become more powerful. Chaval is the first to say yes. Etienne showed his intentions : sweep the bourgeoisie. #### III Etienne now live at Maheude's house. He's sleeping just next to Catherine, now used to intimacy issues. He now more and more evolved, talk and evangelize on his ideas and his project of participative funding. He was reading new books every week, all sent by Pluchart. Books about politics, miner's health, and all the problems they have. One's change of mindset always start with books. The Maheude family start to really be interested in these ideas and start, on their turn, to have these revolutionary ideas. Etienne, by dint of work, finaly became the association's treasurier and even start to earn extra money from this activity. He also had been promoted to a greater position in the mine. Zola describe him as changing to become more vainglorious. The behavior and his evolution is very similar to Napoleon in [Animal Farm - Georges Orwell](Animal%20Farm%20-%20Georges%20Orwell.md). #### IV It's pay day. But this time, with a crisis rising, the company make everything possible to close the access to the mine and thus, paying less the miners. The Maheude just get 50 coins for the wholle family to live 15 days. And this falll of price was the same for the entire coron. So they all decide to start the strike. #### V A new day start in Montsou. Catherine hadn't coming back to sleep at home. Chaval was beating her due to his jealous behavior toward Etienne. The works start and continue like every day but an accident came: because of the lack of wood work structure, a landslide happened. It buried Jeanlin and another man. The man died, spine broked, and Jeanlin lost consciousness as well as his legs get broked. He finaly escape the amputation, but will finish crippled for the rest of his life. The company don't even accepted to give him mmoney for that accident, only the help of finding him a new job, according to his new handicap. The coron was obviously shocked by this news. And on top of that, Catherine finaly didn't come back to home at all, forcely kept by Chaval. The Maheu's family is desesperate. Etienne finaly set a date for the strike: the 1st december. That's now the third part end: it was the story of the rise of a politic revollutionnary and anarchist idea, motivated by worst and worst work conditions. The misery was making people angry, feeling injustice like never and this, until the revolt became inevitable. The accident and the pay day had been the trigger. ### Part IV #### I The strike had start. In this chapter, we're in the Hennebeau's house, shareholders in the Company. They welcome the Grégoires and their daughter Cécile in order to arrange a wedding with their son. But during this, Mr Hennebeau continuously receive papers about the situation in the mines. They're slightly all closed because the workers stayed at home. They start fearing a revolution, even if they talk about it in demi-word, with humour and condescension. A delegation should arrive, so they talk about why and how during their [bombance](Bombance.md) dinner. It's striking how far they are from the condition of their workers, in terms of attitude, beliefs, and condition. They suspect Etienne of being at the base of this strike, and that they could have been creating a provident fund. They compare him to Rasseneur, fired because he had revolutionnary ideas, but "still corupt the coron with talks and beer". #### After this I stoped taking notes because the story started to became very intense. As we could imagine, the strike will go far away. It will be hard for everyone to keep up, as the Hennebeau's will not capitulate and give the miners the condition they want. Zola will go way deeper in the description of the character's feelings. In my opinion, this is where Zola is the best at : describing the complex psychology and feeling of each character and show the worst side of everyone as they are pushed to their last entrenchments. On every new part, the problems reach a new level, until people start to die, whether from hunger, in the mine, killed by the police or even murders. Etienne will be forced to go back to the mine, as they don't have any money anymore. The more they had to keep, the more people start to lose their motivation and capitulate, so the less the Company are about to resign. They start to go back to work and fewer people are continuing the strike. That is also a big cause of separation between the former collegues : they are the ones who resign and go back to work, i.e. Chaval and Catherine, considered as traitors by the ones who try to keep, i.e. the Maheu's and Etienne. They all have their leader, or kind of. For the weaks, it's Rasseneur. He defends that the strike is causing more damage than it was before. For the others, it's Etienne, telling people that they cannot abandon and that the only way to live a better life is to succeed. That separation will lead to a threat for the people who're striking. They're now more divided than ever and the hunger is at a point where everybody are losing their rationality, so they start to fight between each other. Just like in [Thérèse Raquin](Thérèse%20Raquin%20-%20Émile%20Zola.md), Zola made a masterclass on describing absolute filth things, like the way people are dying in terrible conditions. Like a lot of novel like this one, the end isn't happy at all. This is interesting how the illusion of a dream can lead people to act as monster and, by pursuing their goal, can risk and lose everything. It turns out that the dream of a fair world isn't something that can work and, while they will be a need for profitability, it will always lead to inequality. We also can extrapolate that, as a counter-metaphor of David vs. Goliath, in a world where the miners are fighting for their rights against the Company, Goliath always win. Not by killing David, but by autodestruction, caused by mental and physical wear and tear as well as the lack of fraternity and hope. For sure, it was one of the best book I've ever read! ## References - [Les métiers de mineur - Au pays des Ch'tis (FR)](http://www.aupaysdeschtis.com/les-metiers-de-mineur/) %%end:review%% --- _The following was auto-generated by [Books and Binders](Books%20and%20Binders.md) and relates to the copy I own_ ## Germinal This book from Emile Zola was edited by Rencontre Lausanne and released 03/1968. I had it for 0.0€ from Hélène Drago. I didn't read the 573 pages yet. ## More on this book : - Buying date : 23/04/2016 - Buying condition : donation - Actual condition : good - Book type : physical - Binding : hardcover - Language : French - Category : Novel XIXth - ISBN : - Weight in grams : 437