‘The Downfall (La Débâcle)’ is Émile Zola’s 1892 novel, the penultimate in the Rougon-Macquart series, which is a story set against the background of the Franco-Prussian War, the Battle of Sedan and the Paris Commune, events that led to the end of the reign of Napoléon III and the Second French Empire in 1870. The novel follows Jean Macquart, a corporal in the French army corps, as they are driven back by the Prussians deeper and deeper into France. The tone of the novel is a somber one as Zola masterfully depicts the demoralization of the French soldiers as they face the prospect of almost certain defeat and the severe and brutal consequences that the war plays upon the soldiers and civilians who must suffer through it. ‘The Downfall’ is a classic and tragic work which provides a dramatic first hand perspective to an important time in French history.
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