Germinal

Germinal is the thirteenth novel in Émile Zola's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. Often considered Zola's masterpiece and one of the most significant novels in the French tradition, the novel – an uncompromisingly harsh and realistic story of a coalminers' strike in northern France in the 1860s – has been published and translated in over one hundred countries. It has also inspired five film adaptations and two television productions. This book uses the racial and other slurs of its period as written; the Book Guide explains these words where they occur. This edition omits one or more passages describing sexual acts involving children; each omission is marked in the text. This book contains scenes of violence as its author wrote them.

Summary source: Wikipedia: Germinal (novel) · CC BY-SA 4.0