The seventh novel in the Rougon-Macquart cycle, L`Assommoir (1877) is the story of a woman`s struggle for happiness in working-class Paris. It was a contemporary bestseller, outraged conservative critics, and launched a passionate debate about the legitimate scope of modern literature.

At the centre of the novel stands Gervaise, who starts her own laundry and for a time makes a success of it. But her husband Coupeau squanders her earnings in the Assommoir, the local drinking shop, and gradually the pair sink into poverty and squalor.

L`Assommoir is the most finely crafted of Zola`s novels, and this new translation captures not only the brutality but also the pathos of its characters` lives. This book is a pwerful indictment of nineteenth-century social conditions, and the introduction examines its relation to politics and art as well as its explosive effect on the literary scene.

With a map.