Émile Zola 
The Soil (La terre.) A Realistic Novel 

Émile Zola wrote a book called The Soil: A Realistic Novel. The book is part of a twenty-novel series called Les Rougon-Macquart that looks at the social and political situation in France during the Second Empire. The Soil is a sad and dark story about life in the French countryside in the second half of the 1800s. The main characters in the book are the Fouan family, who live in a small town in northern France and work as farmers. The characters are shown to be desperate and cruel in their search for land. Some of them even cause trouble and kill people to get and keep even the smallest piece of land. The book talks about greed, corruption, and the bad things that capitalism does to rural areas. Zola's writing is known for showing people and situations in a real way, and The Soil is no different. The book is a dark and sad look at life in the French countryside in the 19th century, with people who are so desperate because of their situations.