Written by Zola(1840-1902),the leading figure in the French school of Naturalistic fiction,GERMINAL (1885) is the compelling portrait of life in a mining community.The title of the novel refers back to a turbulent period of history,an era of violent change and expected renewal,and the novel itself is the thirteenth ofa twenty-volume series known as 'Rougon-Macquart'series after the names of rhe main branches,one legitimate,the othe illegitimate,of a single family.Gervaise Macquart,whose unhappy tale is told in L'ASSOMMOIR,is the mother of the hero in GERMINAL,Etienne.Etienne is a political figure as well as a compelling psychological study.Through him Zola examines the problems of industrial strife and traces the growing influence of socialism and anarchism.