The fifteenth novel in Zola’s
Les Rougon-Macquartseries,
La Terre[
The Earth/
The Land] was serialized in
Le Gil Blasbetween 29 May and 16 September 1887, and published in volume form in November of the same year. Within the grand sociological sweep of Zola’s series (identified in its subtitle as an “histoire naturelle et sociale” [“natural and social history”]),
La Terreis devoted to an exploration of the lives of the peasant class; peasant characters had featured in the 1875 novel
La Faute de l’abbé Mouret[
Father Mouret’s Sin], but only in the background. Compositionally one of Zola’s most ambitious novels,
La Terrefeatures a particularly large cast of characters, and documents a ten year period in the life of a rural community, the village of Rognes in the…
1759 words
Citation: Counter, Andrew. "La Terre". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 January 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11317, accessed 23 November 2024.]
