La Débâcle
"La Debacle seeks to explain why the Second Empire ended in a crushing military defeat and revolutionary violence. It focuses on ordinary soldiers, showing their bravery and suffering in the midst of circumstances they cannot control, and includes some of the most powerful descriptions Zola ever wrote. Zola skillfully integrates his narrative of events and the fictional lives of his characters to provide the finest account of this tragic chapter in the history of France."--Jacket.