The thirteenth book in Emile Zola's Les Rougon-Macquart, a twenty-volume series, is titled Germinal. The novel, an unflinchingly severe and realistic account of a coalminers' strike in northern France in the 1860s, is frequently regarded as Zola's masterpiece and one of the most important works of French literature. It has been published and translated into more than one hundred languages. Additionally, it served as inspiration for two television shows and five film adaptations. Between April 1884 and January 1885, Germinal was written. It was first published as a serial between November 1884...