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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
Look, you don't walk into a Zola book expecting anything good to happen. It's unreasonable.
I always wanted to read this book after doing a short "commentaire" of it in high school. It met expectations, in its Zola way. Enter woman. Her life is miserable. She thinks she can put her life back together. Sort of succeeds. Then everything goes to bits because ALCOHOLISM and POVERTY and PEOPLE ARE TERRIBLE and those who aren't terrible are powerless to help (either because Main Character won't accept the help or b/c society won't allow it, etc... lots of reasons, take your pick).
Towards the end, I think readers may be tempted to fall into victim blaming, but Zola does a pretty good job of addressing this. If you feel tired and depressed after reading this books, good lord, imagine living the life of the protagonist. I think the happiest moment in her life was when she opened her store. Even the dinner party scene was full of bad omens and a general sense of discomfort. Gervaise gets very few breaks in her life, and what little kindness she does receive from others is largely outweighed by the nastiness of circumstances, people, and bad luck.
Recommended because this was the book that put Zola on the map. Interestingly, Zola's "Au bonheur des dames" is a pretty good follow-up read to this. "L'assommoir" won Zola the good graces of Marguerite Boucicaut, a widow-turned-entrepreneur and CEO of Le Bon Marché (a large department store in Paris) who started out very poor in her youth and even worked in the same profession as Gervaise. When Zola set out to write about the department store phenomenon, Marguerite Boucicaut allowed him to use Le Bon Marché for research purposes and gave him full access to the premises (accompanied, of course, because some areas were more restricted, like the dormitories).
Actually, read this, then read "Au bonheur des dames," then go read about Marguerite Boucicaut, it's like "L'assommoir" but with EVERYTHING BETTER and no tragedy. Or less tragedy. I feel like happiness is too much to ask for sometimes.
I always wanted to read this book after doing a short "commentaire" of it in high school. It met expectations, in its Zola way. Enter woman. Her life is miserable. She thinks she can put her life back together. Sort of succeeds. Then everything goes to bits because ALCOHOLISM and POVERTY and PEOPLE ARE TERRIBLE and those who aren't terrible are powerless to help (either because Main Character won't accept the help or b/c society won't allow it, etc... lots of reasons, take your pick).
Towards the end, I think readers may be tempted to fall into victim blaming, but Zola does a pretty good job of addressing this. If you feel tired and depressed after reading this books, good lord, imagine living the life of the protagonist. I think the happiest moment in her life was when she opened her store. Even the dinner party scene was full of bad omens and a general sense of discomfort. Gervaise gets very few breaks in her life, and what little kindness she does receive from others is largely outweighed by the nastiness of circumstances, people, and bad luck.
Recommended because this was the book that put Zola on the map. Interestingly, Zola's "Au bonheur des dames" is a pretty good follow-up read to this. "L'assommoir" won Zola the good graces of Marguerite Boucicaut, a widow-turned-entrepreneur and CEO of Le Bon Marché (a large department store in Paris) who started out very poor in her youth and even worked in the same profession as Gervaise. When Zola set out to write about the department store phenomenon, Marguerite Boucicaut allowed him to use Le Bon Marché for research purposes and gave him full access to the premises (accompanied, of course, because some areas were more restricted, like the dormitories).
Actually, read this, then read "Au bonheur des dames," then go read about Marguerite Boucicaut, it's like "L'assommoir" but with EVERYTHING BETTER and no tragedy. Or less tragedy. I feel like happiness is too much to ask for sometimes.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Originally published on my blog here in November 2000.
Zola's novel caused such a commotion and was considered so immoral that its original serial publication was halted. Over the next century, it has proved sufficiently influential that the reason for this is to a large extent hidden, particularly in translation. Zola's story treats of the Parisian slums, and it is written in the language which would have been used by the characters, not in the equivalent of the exaggerated, cleaned up Cockney used by English writers but one which used the vocabulary of the streets. To use swearing and slang in literary fiction is not now something shocking, but in the 1870s it was totally unheard of to use such words in print.
It is not just the language used in L'Assommoir which was considered shocking. There is a fair amount of sex in the novel, both inside and outside marriage, for one thing; and the whole story is the tale of a woman's gradual degredation through laziness and drink. (The title is a slang term for a shop which sells alcohol.) Gervaise is basically the principal agent of her own destruction; she is not the virtuous saint so often portrayed in novels about working class life from this period - there is no way that she has a strong enough character to rise above her circumstances. (There is one character who is a bit like this in L'Assommoir, a child who is bringing up two younger sisters despite the beatings and starvation imposed on her by her alcoholic father, and typically she does not receive any reward except an early death.) Gervaise is a more realistic character, and her background is also more realistic. It is not the evil capitalist who grinds down the workers and makes their situation impossible. Characters around Gervaise are relatively comfortable, and even she is well enough off at one point to rent a shop. The character who most nearly approximates the grasping capitalist is one of Gervaise's landlords, and he makes a point of his own poor origins.
The two great virtues of L'Assommoir are its rejection of stereotypes and Zola's vivid writing, which even comes through in translation. It is easy to see why it has had such a strong influence. It is a depressing and uncomfortable read, however, and so is the sort of novel one is pleased to have read but would probably not pick up again for a long time.
Zola's novel caused such a commotion and was considered so immoral that its original serial publication was halted. Over the next century, it has proved sufficiently influential that the reason for this is to a large extent hidden, particularly in translation. Zola's story treats of the Parisian slums, and it is written in the language which would have been used by the characters, not in the equivalent of the exaggerated, cleaned up Cockney used by English writers but one which used the vocabulary of the streets. To use swearing and slang in literary fiction is not now something shocking, but in the 1870s it was totally unheard of to use such words in print.
It is not just the language used in L'Assommoir which was considered shocking. There is a fair amount of sex in the novel, both inside and outside marriage, for one thing; and the whole story is the tale of a woman's gradual degredation through laziness and drink. (The title is a slang term for a shop which sells alcohol.) Gervaise is basically the principal agent of her own destruction; she is not the virtuous saint so often portrayed in novels about working class life from this period - there is no way that she has a strong enough character to rise above her circumstances. (There is one character who is a bit like this in L'Assommoir, a child who is bringing up two younger sisters despite the beatings and starvation imposed on her by her alcoholic father, and typically she does not receive any reward except an early death.) Gervaise is a more realistic character, and her background is also more realistic. It is not the evil capitalist who grinds down the workers and makes their situation impossible. Characters around Gervaise are relatively comfortable, and even she is well enough off at one point to rent a shop. The character who most nearly approximates the grasping capitalist is one of Gervaise's landlords, and he makes a point of his own poor origins.
The two great virtues of L'Assommoir are its rejection of stereotypes and Zola's vivid writing, which even comes through in translation. It is easy to see why it has had such a strong influence. It is a depressing and uncomfortable read, however, and so is the sort of novel one is pleased to have read but would probably not pick up again for a long time.
4,5
Marquant.
Rien de moins.
Mon avis sur le blog:
http://moncoinlecture.com/2017/04/lassommoir-emile-zola/
Marquant.
Rien de moins.
Mon avis sur le blog:
http://moncoinlecture.com/2017/04/lassommoir-emile-zola/
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I am now officially a Zola fan.
I finished my first Emile Zola book while I was in Paris, and it went straight to my list of Favorite Books Ever and Must-Reads. L'Assommoir is the story of a poor washerwoman, Gervaise, and her decline into deeper and deeper poverty and decadence and despair. It's a brilliant portrait of a woman's life during the mid-to-late 1800's.
I finished my first Emile Zola book while I was in Paris, and it went straight to my list of Favorite Books Ever and Must-Reads. L'Assommoir is the story of a poor washerwoman, Gervaise, and her decline into deeper and deeper poverty and decadence and despair. It's a brilliant portrait of a woman's life during the mid-to-late 1800's.
Very interesting overview of how first supermarkets worked.
There are also quite badly written love stories, several background substories connected to death of aristocracy and small shops.
There are also quite badly written love stories, several background substories connected to death of aristocracy and small shops.
I suspect that I would like a newer translation than the one I read - indeed Penguin Classics have published one.