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Cover

Earth

Émile Zola
Brian Nelson and Julie Rose

14 April 2016

ISBN: 9780199677870

464 pages
Paperback
196x129mm

In Stock

Oxford World's Classics

Price: £10.99

Zola's novel of peasant life describes the disintegration of the Fouan family when Papa Fouan decides to divide his land between his three children. Greed and violence feed a bitter struggle for supremacy. This new translation captures the novel's blend of brutality and lyricism in its evocation of the inexorable cycle of the natural world.

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Description

Zola's novel of peasant life describes the disintegration of the Fouan family when Papa Fouan decides to divide his land between his three children. Greed and violence feed a bitter struggle for supremacy. This new translation captures the novel's blend of brutality and lyricism in its evocation of the inexorable cycle of the natural world.

  • A compelling new translation of one of Zola's most powerful novels, the fifteenth work in his famous Rougon-Macquart series that traces the fortunes of a family over five generations.
  • Earth is a vivid portrayal of peasant life on the eve of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Its graphic depiction of the spiralling disintegration of a family of agricultural workers led to the prosecution for obscenity of its first English translator.
  • Brian Nelson's previous Zola translations for Oxford World's Classics have received critical acclaim and popular recognition, and his co-translator, Julie Rose, is internationally renowned for her translations, including Hugo's Les Misérables.
  • Brian Nelson's introduction considers this most 'Zolaesque' novel, in which Zola's unflinching depiction of the bestiality and violence of the peasants brought to a head the literary debates about Naturalism.
  • Includes an up-to-date bibliography, chronology of the author, and helpful explanatory notes.

About the Author(s)

Émile Zola

Brian Nelson, Emeritus Professor, Monash University, and Julie Rose, Freelance translator

Brian Nelson has been editor of the Australian Journal of French Studies since 2002. He is well known for his critical studies and translations of the novels of Émile Zola. These include The Cambridge Companion to Zola, Zola and the Bourgeoisie, and translations for Oxford World's Classics of The Fortune of the Rougons, The Belly of Paris, The Kill, Pot Luck, and The Ladies' Paradise. His most recent publication is The Cambridge Introduction to French Literature (CUP, 2015).

Julie Rose is an internationally renowned translator, whose many translations range from Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, Racine's Phèdre and André Gortz's Letter to D to a dozen works by celebrated urbanist-architect and theorist Paul Virilio, and other leading French thinkers.

Reviews

"Zola's novel is rich in insights like this. Its an outstanding example of Zola's storytelling in the service of a bigger picture, revealing the complexity of small village life without romanticising it or populating it with unrealistic quirky characters. Highly recommended!" - Reading Zola Blog

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