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Germinal

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Germinal

By: Émile Zola
Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
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About this listen

Germinal is one of the most striking novels in the French tradition. Widely regarded as Zola's masterpiece, the novel describes the working conditions of French coalminers in the 1860s in harsh and realistic terms. It is visceral, graphic, and unrelenting. Its strong socialist principles and vivid accounts of the miners' strikes meant that the novel became a key symbol in the workers' fight against oppression, with chants of "Germinal! Germinal!" resonating high above the author's funeral.

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Public Domain (P)2015 Naxos AudioBooks Classics Fiction Historical Fiction Socialism
All stars
Most relevant
great narration and story. better than reading. There is no other book like it. go read it.

Perfect.

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A brilliant story but so incredibly depressing that I am off to slit my throat.

A must read

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Leighton Pugh’s masterful rendering of this enduring classic of French literature is hard to imagine being bettered. The novel has it all, including suspense, horror and a subterranean love story, but most of all it contains an unforgettable portrayal of the misery of life as a miner in 1860s Second Empire France, including a tremendously told final, disastrous climax. Thrilling.

Superb performance of a great classic

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Engrossing, heartbreaking, and well narrated
This is a masterpiece that beautifully paints life in the coalfields of northern france and the germ of unions.

Magnificent

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This book is a classic so you cant go wrong. True drama. The pace of narrative still holds in 2025. Great narrator, but he just cannot do female voices especially crying, it just sounds nails on a chalkboard when he acts out female cries. I dont know how he wasnt told this, because he is an exceptional narrator otherwise, great silent spaces and emotion, well done otherwise, had to still give 4 stars even though the female sounds were pretty aweful.

Classic, drama, realities of capitalism and life

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