Germinie Lacerteux

A terrible and sad story of poverty in Nineteenth Century Paris. The story reinforces the truth that poverty so hinders one's ability to improve one's lot in life that for most it is impossible to shrug off. As a consequence, the unfortunate one is an ever present prey to all that is corrupt and evil. The Goncourt brothers fix their tale in a debilitating environment for a poor woman, namely Paris. The stinks, dirt, cynicism, furtive sex and dishonesty are ever present sources of fear and distress.
The style is realiste, reminiscent of Zola. The story is relentless in its tragedy.

"For me she isn't a maid, a servant. She is like the family I never had!"
By sally tarbox on 2 June 2017
Format: Kindle Edition
Inspired by the authors' servant - an apparently devoted employee whom they discovered, after her death, had been stealing, drinking and living an immoral life.
The title character here is just such a servant. An unhappy early life leads her to become obsessively religious - but when her adored priest realises her feelings are for him rather than God, and avoids her, she gives up on it. She falls on her feet in a good position with the kind-hearted Mlle de Varandeuil, whose own life has been wretched, and who comes to see her servant as almst a daughter.
But despite Germanie's love for her mistress, her passionate show more nature seeks romance, and she ties herself to a cad of a toyboy - Jupillard - who tolerates her adoration for the money he can squeeze out of her. As the true awfulness of her lot comes home to her, Germanie takes to the absinthe and seeks love from any quarter, all unknown to her kindly mistress. And then Germanie falls ill and the many to whom she owes money start to gather like vultures ...

Very reminiscent of other 'realist' French fiction: think Zola and Balzac. This is a beautifully written tragedy - the authors may have been repulsed by their maid's activities, but there is definitely a sense of sympathy for the unfortunate if unwise Germinie. show less

The narrative and (lack of) dialogue failed to hold me in this somewhat moralistic account of prostitution in 19th-century France.

la hombre cumbre de los hermanos Gongourt y marca la iniciación del naturalismo.