A review by msgtdameron
The Masterpiece by Émile Zola

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Reading The Masterpiece after reading Llosa's War of the End of the World is that both are about revolution.  Llosa is revolution on the macro scale and Masterpiece is revolution on the micro scale.  Both works have extremely passionate characters.  Both have initial victory for all the revolutionaries.  Both works have a time of pain for all the characters as the revolution that they so passionately believed in is seen to crash around them.  And, finally, both have tragic yet foreseeable endings.  Seeing both revolutions fail at both the macro and micro level leads one to think that successful revolutions are very very few and very far between.  Weather in the arts as in Masterpiece or in a nation as in War of the end of the world.