The Best of Emile Zola
$175.00 – $300.00
Date: Four weekly sessions on Mondays, starting September 16 and ending October 7
Time: 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Eastern
Cost: C$300 (approx. US$215) for all four sessions. C$175 each for The Assommoir only or Germinal only.
LEADER
Melanie Blake is the director of Classical Pursuits. She has led online seminars on the works of Leila Slimani, WWI poets, Henry James, and much more. She studied English and French at Fordham University and the Université de Montpellier, and linguistics at the University of Nottingham. She loves big French novels full of outsize characters. In May 2025 she’ll be leading the Classical Pursuits tour Art and Resistance in Paris and Champagne.
BOOKS
The Assommoir by Emile Zola, translated Brian Nelson
Oxford World’s Classics (2021)
ISBN-13: 978-0-198-828563
Germinal by Emile Zola, translated Peter Collier
Oxford World’s Classics (2008)
ISBN-13:9780-199536894
This seminar brings together two of Emile Zola’s most powerful, popular, and controversial novels: The Assommoir and Germinal. The Assommoir centres on Gervaise, a Parisian laundress determined to make a decent life for herself, in a world where the deck is stacked high against her. Germinal is the story of Gervaise’s son Etienne, a miner in northern France who becomes a political organizer struggling to keep the voracious mining industry from destroying him and his fellow workers.
Each novel brings with it a cast of unforgettable characters, deft and suspenseful plotting, and Zola’s legendary descriptions of how people lived, worked, fought, loved, had sex, ate, and drank in 19th-century France. In our discussions, we’ll also consider Zola’s theories of naturalism and the role of the novel. If you’ve been wanting to read Zola but were not sure how to start, or you want to take a fresh look at two classics, this seminar is for you.
Register for the full four-week series, or for The Assommoir only (Sept. 16 and 23) or Germinal only (Sept. 30 and Oct. 7).
Registrants who book a place on our October 2024 Paris Café Culture tour save 50% on this seminar. Contact us for details at info@classicalpursuits.com.
Practical details
Once you register, you’ll get an order confirmation. We’ll send you the Zoom link and a welcome letter from your leader about 3 weeks before the seminar starts.
Classical Pursuits will record this seminar, and make each session privately available to registered participants for up to two weeks after that session.
Online seminar payments are nonrefundable. Discount codes must be used at the time of purchase.
Seminar group sizes are a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 12. See full terms and conditions for Classical Pursuits online seminars. By registering for a seminar, you agree to abide by our code of conduct.
Additional information
| Zola Seminar Options | The Assommoir + Germinal, The Assommoir only, Germinal only |
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