We reprint the Vintage Classics paperback edition (ISBN 0-679-75430-X) with several spelling corrections. We recommend, however, the translation by Stanley and Eleanor Hochman, in the Signet Classic paperback edition (ISBN 0-451-51975-2), because its English is more contemporary and in a few cases is closer to the vulgar French of the original. A Penguin Classics translation is also widely available. Any of these printed books would be easier to read than this online edition. The original text in French has been placed online in ATHENA in Switzerland.An excellent motion picture film has been adapted from this novel and is available on videotape from Sony Pictures Classics. It is rated R because of some nudity and profanity. It is in French, in letter-box format, with English subtitles. This Claude Berri film (copyright 1993) stars Gerard Depardieu, Renaud, Miou-Miou, Jean Carmet, Judith Henry, and Jean-Roger Milo. It was made with the assistance of Region Nord/Pas-de-Calais, Ministere de la Culture et de la Francophone, of Centre Nationale de la Cinematographie, and of Ministere de l'Education Nationale, and supported by Funds Eurimages of the European Council. The film, although it is on two video cartridges, does improve on the book by leaving out many of the author's excesses of bad taste, although we are sorry to see it fails to show the spectacular, cinematic collapse of the mine toward the end of the book. While the working people in the film are treated sympathetically, Zola's treatment in the book veers back and forth, from seeing them as much animals as heroes. A study guide to the novel has been put online by Paul Brians, Department of English, Washington State University.It has been said that this novel is one of confrontations, and the detail of the book makes this even plainer than the film. It is instructive to reflect on the political philosophy of early socialism and anarchism shown here. The concept of the "general st...
