I am trying to recall the title and author of a story about French coal miners, possibly 18th or 19th century. I believe the title was a one-word title. The story was about the great poverty of the coal miners.

Thanks.

Hi Vapros,
I love questions like this

The book is "Germinal" by Emile Zola.
I can see it on the bookcase from where I am sitting right now. It's one of my favourites.

Dance Girl, please try to be more timely in your responses.

Wow! Awesome timing. Great response. Now maybe poor Vapros can sleep tonight!

Thank you, Pelican, and welcome to AnswerPool.

Well done, dance girl, and many thanks. And yes, I slept well last night - maybe loudly, also.

Gosh - That brings back memories! I read most of the novels in Emile Zola's mammoth Rougon-Macquart series when I was a student, but before I actually got to university I hadn't read a single one. Anyway, the man who interviewed me prior to admission specifically asked me about Zola towards the end of my forty-inute grilling and I had to admit that I hadn't (yet)tried him (I was only just 18). "Ah well, he said, I'd advise you to do so if you come up here as a student."

A week later I got a letter confirming the offer of a place for the following autumn, and after a while I dutifully went off to the local library to did a bit of research into dear old Emile. The leading English language expert on Zola in the world, it appeared, was a certain Professor F. W. J. Hemmings, I discovered.

Guess who interviewed me?!

Great story, Colin! Of course, you were probably better off not having read Zola at that point, and not knowing just who was interviewing you.

You're absolutely right of course, Dorian. That woyuld have been VERY scary.I subsequently bought his erudite book on Emile Zola from the university bookshop and it still sits on my shelf. It's a good read too, but it's probably out of print now.
One Christmas, he and his wife invited the French students in his various seminars on the French novel to his home in the city suburbs for drinks and so forth. At the bottom of the invitation giving us all directions he'd typed "Ample parking space for plutocrats". Of course, we impecunious students all went there by bus, but it's a phrase I often use myself these days on my own invitations. Memories indeed ...