Germinal

Germinal is a thirteenth novel of twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart written by French author Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola. Germinal is considered to be masterpiece of Zola and one of the most valuable novels in French literature. It is undoubtedly rough and realistic story of coalminers' strike in northern part of France in 1860s. The novel has been published and translated in the half of countries in the world and got five film adaptations and two TV productions. The title means name of the spring month in French Republican calendar.

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 as well as inspiring five film adaptations and two television productions. Germen in Latin means seed.

The protagonist of the story is Étienne Lantier, previously seen in L'Assommoir made in 1877 and was the central character in La Bete humaine written in 1890 by Zola. Ethiene is a hardworking migrant miner which arrives at the forbidding coal mining town of Monstou in the far north of France. He met the veteran miner Maheu, who gets him a job pushing carts down the pit.