L'Assommoir

by Émile Zola

"L'Assommoir" by Émile Zola is a novel published in 1877. The seventh volume in the Rougon-Macquart series, it follows Gervaise Macquart, a hardworking laundress in working-class Paris who dreams of opening her own shop. After being abandoned by her lover and marrying a roofer named Coupeau, she builds a modest success through determination. But a devastating accident sets off a spiral of misfortune, as alcohol, returning ghosts from the past, and mounting debts threaten to destroy everything she has worked for.