Regarding 'Germinal', just reading the back made me understand what Chris meant when he talked about the indepth imagery within the book's description. The insert they chose to put on the back cover as a teaser reads:
"Buried like moles beneath the crushing weight of the earth, and without a breath of fresh air in their burning lungs, they simply went on tapping."
The description used is so powerful you can almost picture yourself amongst the characters; inhaling the dirt into your lungs and struggling to breathe. Any writer that manages to portray this kind of imagery surely has talent, and would surely have to considering the uncompromisingly harsh and realistic portrayal of a coalminer's strike in 1860s France. The title itself refers to a month in the French Republican Calendar, being a spring month. 'Germen' is a Latin word meaning 'seed' and therefore reflects in the novel a hope for a better future amongst the miners.
I will be frequently blogging random updates on how I am finding the novel, and also talking about my favourite descriptive passages or chapters.
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