Earth

…portrait of peasant life in La Terre in 1887 led a group of five so-called disciples to repudiate Zola in a manifesto published in the important newspaper Le Figaro. His novel La Débâcle (1892), which was openly critical of the French army and government actions during the Franco-German War (1870–71),…

In La Terre (1887; Earth) Zola breaks with the tradition of rustic, pastoral depictions of peasant life to show what he considered to be the sordid lust for land among the French peasantry. In La Bête humaine (1890; The Human Beast) he analyzes the hereditary urge to kill that…

…land in La Terre (1887; Earth). But there are countless examples of manipulation of facts, particularly in the chronology of the novels, which show that for Zola documentary accuracy was not paramount. Indeed, his work notes reveal that he saw the scientific principles underlying the novels as a literary device…

In La Terre (1887; Earth) Zola depicts what he considered to be the sordid lust for land among the French peasantry. In La Bête humaine (1890; The Human Beast) he analyzes the hereditary urge to kill that haunts the Lantier branch of the family. La Débâcle (1892; The Debacle)…