Germinal

Raymond N. MacKenzie is Professor of English at the University of St. Thomas.David Baguley is Emeritus Professor, Durham University (U.K) and the University of Western Ontario.

Raymond MacKenzie's elegant new translation of Emile Zola’s Germinal captures the diction of the novel's colorful characters and the restrained voice of a naturalist narrator. David Baguley’s introduction analyzes Zola’s personal background, his literary and scientific influences, and the historical circumstances of French workers in the 1860s as well as a spectrum of political acts and deeds in the 1880s when the novel was written. These features plus Zola’s notes on the town of Anzin that he studied prior to writing the novel, make this the edition of choice for course adoptions in history and literature. --Stephen Kern, Humanities Distinguished Professor, Department of History, Ohio State University