- Published: 1 April 1973
- ISBN: 9780140442809
- Imprint: Penguin Classics
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 512
- RRP: $32.99
The Debacle

















Robin Buss's acclaimed translation vividly brings Zola's descriptions to life in clear, contemporary English.
Conservative and working-class, Jean Macquart is an experienced, middle-aged soldier in the French army, who has endured deep personal loss. When he first meets the wealthy and mercurial Maurice Levasseur, who never seems to have suffered, his hatred is immediate. But after they are thrown together during the disastrous Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71, the pair are compelled to understand one other. Forging a profound friendship, they must struggle together to endure a disorganised and brutal war, the savage destruction of France's Second Empire and the fall of Napoleon III. One of the greatest of all war novels, The Debacle is the nineteenth novel in Zola's great Rougon-Macquart cycle. A forceful and deeply moving tale of close friendship, it is also a fascinating chronicle of the events that were to lead, in the words of Zola himself, to 'the murder of a nation'.
- Published: 1 April 1973
- ISBN: 9780140442809
- Imprint: Penguin Classics
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 512
- RRP: $32.99
Other books in the series
About the author
Émile Zola (1840-1902) was the leading figure in the French school of naturalistic fiction. His principal work, Les Rougon-Macquart, is a panorama of mid-19th century French life, in a cycle of 20 novels which Zola wrote over a period of 22 years.