Germinal is an imperfect masterpiece. It was a riveting, deeply immersive read and I was very invested in the fate of the miners in spite of the fact that, on paper, it was narrative which didn't appeal to me a great deal. I understand the hype. I understand why the French revere this novel. Why it's considered Zola's best. As a sociological portrait of a community and a way of life and being few novels compare. It genuinely belongs in that superlative category with the works of the greatest social novelists - the Tolstoys, the Eliots, the Flauberts. The pervasive metaphor of the mine. This beastly, belching creature devouring human flesh - the soot, the grime, the immiseration, the deep humanity and solidarity of people bound together by shared suffering. Very few novels even come close to presenting a living nightmare in such visceral, moving terms, but this one gets there.

However, this book doesn't do what Zola intended. It's not, as he probably believed it would be, a study of hereditary characteristics within the broader Rougon-Macquart cycle. Fundamentally, it's a political novel. It's a novel about power, charismatic authority, and the bloodlust of the masses when unleashed on their oppressor. Frankly, its closest parallel may be Dostoevsky's Demons because it poses questions about where political violence comes from and its ethical justifiability. The most fully realised characters in the novel are Etienne and Souvarine - they are also its most interesting. Etienne's tragic character arc, as Rasseneur prophesises, is that of the revolutionary agitator, the man who mobilises the rage of the mob, who wins its unflinching support, but in doing so, unleashed forces he cannot muster and it turns on him and ruthlessly spits him out. It's a tragic but predictable tale - one absolutely central to the history of modern France - and it reflects Zola's own troubled and conflicted view of revolutionary violence as a means for effecting change. Souvarine is a truly fascinating and terrifying character: a dreamer and a mystic committed to realising the kingdom of heaven on earth by any means necessary. People like Souvarine don't unleash the braying hounds within a crowd. They don't seek popular acclaim. Their fanaticism and commitment to the cause. The fiery gleam in their eyes and their quiet words mirror those of a prophet. Inside people like Souvarine, slumbers an unquenchable thirst for destruction, a desire to see the world sink into a pit of hellfire and madness no matter the consequences. Perhaps few read it this way, but Souvarine is among the most important characters in this book because it's men like him who will come close to destroying the world in the century following.

What stops this book from being a novel beyond reproach is that Zola doesn't fully develop many of the characters. Too many personae are placeholders or foils, they fulfill a role but, like Catherine, Negrel or the Maheus are half realised, or like Chaval and Jeanlin are black boxes whose motives are far too simplistic or never meaningfully explained. This doesn't detract from the book too much in the way it might with some because Germinal is primarily a portrait of a society and a place, but, simply put, Zola is just no Tolstoy when it comes to creating a large palette of vivid characters. 

Nonetheless, the prose in this book is beautiful and that is something Zola can never be faulted for: