Zola’s La Terre (The Earth) proved highly controversial on publication in 1887 and still retains the power to shock. It follows the fortunes of the Fouan family in the years leading up to the Franco-Prussian War. Old Fouan, the patriarch, draws up a legal contract to divide his farmland between his three children in exchange for an allowance that will support him and his wife through a comfortable retirement. Against a backdrop of rural deprivation, drunkenness, violence and sexual abuse, the Fouans’ greed, jealousy and power games cause both the contract and family ties to unravel with tragic consequences.
