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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
FR
J'ai lu ce livre suite aux recommandations de certains de mes abonnés.
Je ne sais pas vraiment quoi penser de ce livre qui me laisse un arrière goût sur les yeux.
J'aurai aimé que beaucoup de choses soient différentes pour Gervaise. Je sais que certains sujets étaient d'actualité, donc là-dessus, je ne peux pas vraiment dire quelque chose. Mais quand même... Certains personnages méritaient mieux, tout simplement.
ENG
I read this book on the recommendation of some of my subscribers.
I don't really know what to think of this book which leaves an aftertaste in my eyes.
I wish a lot of things were different for Gervaise. I know there were some topics that were topical, so on that I can't really say anything. But still... Some characters simply deserved better.
J'ai lu ce livre suite aux recommandations de certains de mes abonnés.
Je ne sais pas vraiment quoi penser de ce livre qui me laisse un arrière goût sur les yeux.
J'aurai aimé que beaucoup de choses soient différentes pour Gervaise. Je sais que certains sujets étaient d'actualité, donc là-dessus, je ne peux pas vraiment dire quelque chose. Mais quand même... Certains personnages méritaient mieux, tout simplement.
ENG
I read this book on the recommendation of some of my subscribers.
I don't really know what to think of this book which leaves an aftertaste in my eyes.
I wish a lot of things were different for Gervaise. I know there were some topics that were topical, so on that I can't really say anything. But still... Some characters simply deserved better.
I used to think that Bernard Malamud's The Fixer was the most relentlessly bleak and depressing book because it went from bad to worse to much worse over the course of the novel. But L'Assommoir (translated here as The Drinking Den) beats it because it has short interludes of slightly better that make the overall trend that much more painful. It is a little didactic and mono-thematic (drinking is bad for poor people, really really bad), but it centers around one extraordinary character (Gervaise Coupeau), has smaller parts for two extraordinary girls (her daughter Nana who becomes a prostitute at age 15 and her next door neighbor Lalie, who watches her mother get beaten to death by her alcoholic father and eventually succumbs to the same fate herself), and has some amazing set-pieces, including a trip to the Louvre by Gervaise's wedding party and what must be one of the most memorably described dinner parties in literature.
L'Assommoir does not have anything resembling the range of Dickens, the depth of Hugo or Tolstoy, or the peripatetic energy of Balzac. But it does hit its theme effectively and relentlessly to create something that must have been an eye-opening read at the time and still feels revelatory.
L'Assommoir does not have anything resembling the range of Dickens, the depth of Hugo or Tolstoy, or the peripatetic energy of Balzac. But it does hit its theme effectively and relentlessly to create something that must have been an eye-opening read at the time and still feels revelatory.
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A none-too-perky jaunt through the lows and very-lows of the working class slums of 19thC Paris. Like Dickens, but with all of the comedic and hopeful elements dragged round the back of the pub and beaten unconscious just before the opening chapter.
For all that we praise Zola for his Naturalism, the novel is marred by his relentless belief in Determinism, which inevitably removes any possibility of change, growth, or redemption and denudes the characters of inner life and volition. Fascinating, but flawed.
For all that we praise Zola for his Naturalism, the novel is marred by his relentless belief in Determinism, which inevitably removes any possibility of change, growth, or redemption and denudes the characters of inner life and volition. Fascinating, but flawed.