The Drinking Den (Penguin Classics)

Product Information

François Zola was an influential French novelist, the most important example of the literary school of naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalization of France. Credit to Wetherspoons, they’ve kept it very nice inside, pretty close to how it looks in Metro-Land with grand columns topped by crests and shields. Abandoned by her lover and left to bring up their two children alone, Gervaise Macquart has to fight to earn an honest living. When she accepts the marriage proposal of Monsieur Coupeau, it seems as though she is on the path to a decent, respectable life at last. But with her husband's drinking and the unexpected appearance of a figure from her past, Gervaise's plans begin to unravel tragically

I struggle with Emile Zola; I have, to use a vulgar phrase, beef with him. With L'Assommoir, as with almost all his novels, it was Zola's stated aim to show life as it really was. That - reality - is actually how he responded to criticism of this particular book. No, you cannot object to L'Assommoir, he said, because it is true, it is life! And, well, I call bullshit on that. Some say this is the greatest novel in the series, I can see how it could be true, but it won't stop me from thoroughly enjoying every remaining novel of the series I've yet to read, of which the next will be Nana. This book was number seventh in a series of twenty books that Zola wrote describing the lives of Parisians in the 1800s. For me it was a tough read (except for the food scenes). One could see how tough their circumstances were. In some ways, they wanted to emulate those with money but often there abilities were limited, or like this couple, debt crippled them. Ah sadly, not much has changed. Thus the sad downfall of a young, motivated, good-natured and hard-working woman takes its course. As Gervaise tells a friend, her working life began when she was ten years old and started washing clothes in a river in Provence. Moving on to live in the poor parts of Paris, she has to face the even harder challenge of a modern factory. The reader can only imagine the monstrous work environment and physical exhaustion she is exposed to, day after day, without losing hope. That is Zola's laconic explanation for "L'Assommoir", simply a moral message shown in action. And what devastating action it is.Zola has an absolutely mesmerizing way of unfolding the vignette that is Gevaise's existence. He describes surroundings, characters, clothing, animals, nothing is left undisturbed.

The second half of the novel describes the downward spiral of addiction in its most minute details. Impressive and revolting!Eventually Bijard tripped over a chair and fell flat on the floor, where they left him to snore. Père Bru helped Gervaise lift up Madame Bijard, who was now sobbing violently; Lalie, who'd moved closer, watched her mother cry, already used to such events, and resigned to them. As the laundress went downstairs again through the now quiet building she could still see the girl's eyes, the eyes of a child of four, as serious and unafraid as the eyes of a grown woman. Gervaise's story begins with her in tears, sitting at home late at night, watching her two little boys Claude and Etienne, four and eight years old, on a shared pillow. These are the future (anti-)heroes of The Masterpiece and of Germinal. Her first husband Lantier does not come home that night. It's Bijard,' she said. 'He's beatin' ‘is wife up. He was waitin' for ‘er under the archway, pissed as a newt. He kept punchin' 'er all the way up the stairs and he's still at it up there, in their room. Listen, can't you 'ear 'er screamin'?' My memory is a lttle vague but i am sure there was a pub at piccadilly, called the white bear (seem to remember a stuffed bear by the entrance). This would be early 1980s and i could be wrong about the name. Cuántos sentimientos encontrados con esta novela... Empecé con risas, alucinando con la frescura y la sinceridad de Zola. Poco a poco, al irse desarrollando la historia y al ir conociendo a los personajes más profundamente, he sentido tristeza, lástima, dolor, enfado, piedad, ternura, ganas de llorar...

At Liverpool Street station could be found Pat-Mac’s Drinking Den, which was on the eastbound platform of the Metropolitan Line. It was converted into a cafe in 1977. That small pub also had the novelty of having a serving hatch leading directly onto the platform, letting passengers drink while waiting for a train. Coupeau was just crossing the street. He nearly smashed a pane of glass as he staggered through the door. He was dead drunk, his teeth clenched, his nose pinched. Gervaise could see at once the poison from Père Colombe's Assommoir in the polluted blood that discoloured his skin. She wanted to laugh it off and put him to bed, as she always did when he was lit up by wine. But he pushed her aside without opening his mouth and raised his fist as he brushed past and dropped on to the bed. He was just like the other one, the drunkard snoring upstairs, worn out with beating his wife. A chill came over Gervaise as, with a sinking heart, she thought about the men in her life, about her husband and Goujet and Lantier, and despaired of ever being happy. Tunstall Road: Man charged with rape in central Leeds as police look to identify potential key witness At Mansion House, a buffet bar was run by Spiers and Pond, which was tantalizingly close to the platforms, but not quite on them. Nella traduzione italiana assume un suono assai sinistro: L’ Ammazzatoio o, non da meno, Lo Scannatoio.In the early days, trains were slow and journeys were long, so a pint to fortify the body while waiting 10 minutes wasn’t an unreasonable idea. Today with trains every couple of minutes and delivering commuters to their destinations at speeds that would have amazed our Victorian ancestors, a pint on the Underground seems less necessary. Paddington Station had a “blue room”, which was more due to the habit of calling the best room in the house a blue room, and by railway standards, this was said to have been quite a posh establishment. More than half of Zola's novels were part of a set of 20 books collectively known as Les Rougon-Macquart. Unlike Balzac who in the midst of his literary career resynthesized his work into La Comédie Humaine, Zola from the start at the age of 28 had thought of the complete layout of the series. Set in France's Second Empire, the series traces the "environmental" influences of violence, alcohol and prostitution which became more prevalent during the second wave of the Industrial Revolution. The series examines two branches of a family: the respectable (that is, legitimate) Rougons and the disreputable (illegitimate) Macquarts for five generations. But for me the real pornography is the food descriptions. There are two scenes where Zola describes feasts that truly are truly sizzling in their accounts. First, the wedding of Coupeau and Gervaise but it really overflows with the party she through complete with roast goose, side of pork, mouth watering potatoes, peas, salad, and a dessert of cheeses and strawberries. Ooh la la. Food porn at its best!