EARTH OWC PAPER,Zola's novel of peasant life describes the disintegration of the Fouan family when Papa Fouan decides to divide his land between his three children. Greed and violence feed a bitter struggle for supremacy. This new translation captures the novel's blend of brutality and lyricism in its evocation of the inexorable cycle of the natural world. A compelling new translation of one of Zola's most powerful novels, the fifteenth work in his famous Rougon-Macquart series that traces the fortunes of a family over five generations. Earth is a vivid portrayal of peasant life on the eve of the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Its graphic depiction of the spiralling disintegration of a family of agricultural workers led to the prosecution for obscenity of its first English translator. Brian Nelson's previous Zola translations for Oxford World's Classics have received critical acclaim and popular recognition, and his co-translator, Julie Rose, is internationally renowned for her translations, including Hugo's Les Misérables. Brian Nelson's introduction considers this most 'Zolaesque' novel, in which Zola's unflinching depiction of the bestiality and violence of the peasants brought to a head the literary debates about Naturalism. Includes an up-to-date bibliography, chronology of the author, and helpful explanatory notes.