L'Assommoir

L'Assommoir is a novel of alcoholism and dissipation set in Paris in the late nineteenth century. It is the seventh volume of Émile Zola's twenty-volume Les Rougon-Macquart series, and was published in 1877. L'Assommoir is a hard hitting depiction of working class life in Paris and was widely acclaimed at the time of its publication, and is today considered one of Zola's masterpieces.