L'Assommoir in Reading 1001

Feb 29, 2016 Rosemary rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books

A ground-breaking novel of working-class (and unemployed-class) Paris. At the start of the story, Gervaise Macquart, known as Lantier, is 22. She and her partner have two sons, the elder born when she was 14. Lantier leaves her, and she marries a Parisian roof worker. She has a daughter (Nana) and sets up her own laundry business. But misfortune and alcohol dog the couple, and they are soon caught in a downward spiral.

This is a marvellous and terrifying story of the perils of alcohol, especially A ground-breaking novel of working-class (and unemployed-class) Paris. At the start of the story, Gervaise Macquart, known as Lantier, is 22. She and her partner have two sons, the elder born when she was 14. Lantier leaves her, and she marries a Parisian roof worker. She has a daughter (Nana) and sets up her own laundry business. But misfortune and alcohol dog the couple, and they are soon caught in a downward spiral.

This is a marvellous and terrifying story of the perils of alcohol, especially when you're living without a safety net. Gervaise becomes looser in all kinds of ways until she falls apart.

At the same time there are some wonderful set pieces, like the trip to the Louvre which the Coupeaus' wedding party undertakes when a storm stops them going for their planned country walk between the ceremony and the wedding dinner. Zola shows them traipsing through the galleries, finding the copyists more interesting than the original paintings, and getting lost looking for the exit. Despite the glass pyramid, it doesn't sound like the Louvre's changed at all inside--I felt their pain.

The novel's still relevant in deeper ways, too. Despite our welfare states, people still fall into drink and drug traps that end in horrible ways.

This translation (Margaret Mauldon for Oxford World's Classics) reads a little strangely because of the use of London slang and swearwords in a novel set in Paris--things like "Shut your face and gimme the bleedin' coffee." The translator's note explains that Zola consulted a dictionary of street language to write in authentic working-class slang, which would have been unfamiliar to many of his readers--and even more so to French readers of today. Modern French editions are full of footnotes. So translators have a choice of using ordinary English words and losing the force of Zola's shocking prose, leaving the words in French and littering the pages with footnotes, or using English slang, which she's done. The result is that the characters sound like they've stepped out of a mid-20th-century sitcom (Steptoe & Son, anyone?). Mostly it works well, but it's a little jarring at times. One of the hazards of translation, I suppose. I don't see how else it could have been done. ...more

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Apr 01, 2022 George P. rated it really liked it

Shelves: author-not-us-canada-or-uk, 1001-books-read, 100-years-old-or-more

A remarkably modern realistic novel which was written over 130 years ago. This is the one that brought fame to Zola. A rather dark story towards the end especially but hard to look away from.

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Apr 03, 2022 Kristel rated it really liked it

Shelves: french-literature, 1001-books, 1001-challenge

The 7th edition of the Les Rougon-Macquart series. The book is about a family living in Paris during the time Napoleon III trying to survive as middle class. Zola gives us a picture of this family using naturalism. You will experience Paris with all your senses from the perspective of this man and woman and how the tavern contributed to their experience. The book might appeal to those that like novels with historical significance and epic books about family.

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