Debacle

This is a new book. Condition: Brand New.

Robin Buss's acclaimed translation vividly brings Zola's descriptions to life in clear, contemporary English.

Conservative and working-class, Jean Macquart is an experienced, middle-aged soldier in the French army, who has endured deep personal loss. When he first meets the wealthy and mercurial Maurice Levasseur, who never seems to have suffered, his hatred is immediate. But after they are thrown together during the disastrous Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71, the pair are compelled to understand one other. Forging a profound friendship, they must struggle together to endure a disorganised and brutal war, the savage destruction of France's Second Empire and the fall of Napoleon III. One of the greatest of all war novels, The Debacle is the nineteenth novel in Zola's great Rougon-Macquart cycle. A forceful and deeply moving tale of close friendship, it is also a fascinating chronicle of the events that were to lead, in the words of Zola himself, to 'the murder of a nation'.

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Paperback / softback
ISBN13: 9780140442809
Published: March 2006

Number of pages: 512
Width: 129 mm
Height: 198 mm
Depth: 22 mm

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd