This is a new edition of “Germinal,” originally published in 1895 by Leonard Smithers for The Lutetian Society, of London, translated by Havelock Ellis. Part of the project Immortal Literature Series of classic literature, this is a new edition of the classic work published in 1895—not a facsimile reprint. Obvious typographical errors have been carefully corrected and the entire text has been reset and redesigned by Pen House Editions to enhance readability, while respecting the original edition. “Germinal,” a bleak but nevertheless fascinatingly realistic and intriguing novel, tells the story of a coal-mining community in mid-nineteenth-century France. The main protagonist is a young man, Étienne Lantier, who arrives at the fictional town of Montsou, in northern France, near the Belgium border, looking for a job. He finds work as a miner, having to labor long hours under miserable conditions. Passionate about socialism, and seeing the hopeless lives of his fellow miners—having to put up with reduced wages, harsh working conditions, and hunger—he ends up leading them to a violent strike. Thanks to Leonard Smithers (1861-1907)—a London publisher associated with the Decadent movement—and his Lutetian Society—a secret literary society—translators such as Havelock Ellis were able to provide British readers with translations of some of Émile Zola’s controversial novels, aiming at expanding the cultural horizons of the few lucky readers who had access to them. Considered by the overwhelming majority of critics as the best translator of Zola’s “Germinal,” Havelock Ellis (1859-1939) was a social activist, a physician and a psychologist, whose best-known works concern sexuality and criminology. In 1890 he published “The Criminal,” a remarkable work on criminal anthropology. In 1897, he co-authored, with John Addington Symonds, “Sexual Inversion,” the first medical text in English about homosexuality, another of his masterpieces. About the Author: Émile François Zola (born in Paris in 1840; died in Paris in 1902) was a journalist, a novelist, a playwright, and a political activist. He was one of the most influential French novelists of the 19th century and the founder of the literary and theatrical school of naturalism. Zola was a major figure in the political liberalization of France. Émile Zola’s works include novels, dramas, poetry, and criticism, among which is his famous “Les Rougon-Macquart” (1871-1893), a cycle of twenty novels which depict various aspects of life and society, such as “The Fortune of the Rougons,” (1871), the first of the series (original title: “La Fortune des Rougon”); “L’Assommoir” (1877), the seventh novel of the series, about the suffering of the Parisian working-class; “Nana” (1880), the ninth installment, which deals with prostitution; “Piping Hot!,” the translation of “Pot-Bouille” (1882), the tenth novel of the cycle and Zola’s most sarcastic satire, which describes daily life in a newly constructed block of flats in late nineteenth-century Paris; “The Ladies Paradise” (1883), the eleventh novel (original title: “Au Bonheur des Dames”), which focuses on Octave Mouret, who, in “Pot-Bouille,” meets Caroline Hédouin, the owner of a small silk shop; and “Germinal” (1885), the thirteenth novel in the series, considered by some as his masterpiece. Zola’s open letter to French president Félix Faure, under the headline “J’Accuse…!,” published on January, 1898, charging various French officials with a “terrible miscarriage of justice,” reopened the case of the Jewish army officer, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who had been sentenced to Devil’s Island. For that, Zola was himself sentenced to a year in prison but fled to England, returning one year later after Dreyfus’ name had been cleared. Dreyfus was eventually reinstated as an officer and publicly decorated with the Legion of Honor.

 

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