Germinal by Émile Zola

This was my first time reading anything by Zola, and outside of a few short stories, my first excursion into French Realist literature. I am deeply moved by the book and felt such a tumult of emotions in reading it. The character arcs are incredibly moving, the depiction of the mine itself is stunning -- I am still shaking from Catherine's experience during the worker sabotage after she'd passed out. The horror of the underground is asounding.

I feel like this might be such an important book in our contemporary moment -- the question of the lives of the masses, what makes a good life, what to fight for, how to fight for it... All of this is in mind. And Zola's resolutely straight-ahead look at the costs of action, inaction, incomplete action feels really true to life. Are there other gems in his ouevre, or is this really the masterpiece?