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  • Published: 16 September 2005
  • ISBN: 9780140449549
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 480
  • RRP: $26.00

The Drinking Den




One of the great works of 19th century Realism, and one of Zola's best-known novels

Set in the taverns of Paris, this is perhaps the first classical tragedy of working-class people living in the slums of a city. The Drinking Den (1877) is part of the Rougon-Macquart series, a naturalistic history of two branches of a family traced through several generations. Zola's work was influenced by contemporary theories of heredity and experimental science, and the behaviour of the two families is shown to be conditioned by environment and inherited characteristics, chiefly drunkenness and mental instability.

  • Published: 16 September 2005
  • ISBN: 9780140449549
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 480
  • RRP: $26.00

Other books in the series

On Sparta
Love
Annals
Military Dispatches

About the author

Emile Zola

Émile Zola (1840-1902) was the leading figure in the French school of naturalistic fiction. His principal work, Les Rougon-Macquart, is a panorama of mid-19th century French life, in a cycle of 20 novels which Zola wrote over a period of 22 years.

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