Les creux-de-maisons

by Ernest Pérochon

"Les creux-de-maisons" by Ernest Pérochon is a novel published in 1912. The story follows Séverin Patureau, a day laborer who returns from military service with nothing but determination. He marries Delphine, and together they work tirelessly on farms in the Bocage region, dreaming of renting their own smallholding. To save money, they live in a "creux de maison," a squalid, half-underground dwelling. The novel exposes the brutal poverty of agricultural workers during France's Belle Époque.