L' assommoir

“A heavy man of forty was serving a ten year old girl who had asked him to place four sous' worth of brandy into her cup. A shaft of sunlight came through the entrance to warm the floor which was always damp from the smokers' spitting. From everything, the casks, the bar, the entire room, a liquoris Leggi tutto

Zola writes some of my favourite gritty soap opera novels. They are depressing in theme, but also fast-paced and easy to read, so I feel a bit like I'm reading a trashy pageturner with a fancy Penguin Classics cover. This one is about the evils of alcohol abuse, but specifically for the poor in the s Leggi tutto

Whenever I think I had a rough upbringing I read a book like this and realise I am a fluffed little pillow of good fortune. I was raised in a council tenement in a backwater semi-village in Central Scotland amid a backdrop of Protestant activism and spinster gossiping. But compared to Zola’s Paris i Leggi tutto