Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • La Terre

  • [The Earth]
  • By: Émile Zola
  • Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
  • Length: 20 hrs and 56 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (8 ratings)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

La Terre

By: Émile Zola
Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £25.99

Buy Now for £25.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Zola’s La Terre (The Earth) proved highly controversial on publication in 1887 and still retains the power to shock. It follows the fortunes of the Fouan family in the years leading up to the Franco-Prussian War. Old Fouan, the patriarch, draws up a legal contract to divide his farmland between his three children in exchange for an allowance that will support him and his wife through a comfortable retirement. Against a backdrop of rural deprivation, drunkenness, violence and sexual abuse, the Fouans’ greed, jealousy and power games cause both the contract and family ties to unravel with tragic consequences.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2022 Naxos AudioBooks UK Ltd.
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Belly of Paris cover art
Blood, Sex and Money cover art
David Copperfield cover art
Father Goriot cover art
Invitation to a Beheading cover art
Tristram Shandy cover art
Far Eastern Tales cover art
Laughter in the Dark cover art
The Diary of a Madman and Other Stories cover art
Ivanhoe cover art
Sentimental Education cover art
The Claverings cover art
The Travels of Marco Polo cover art

What listeners say about La Terre

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    4
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

AMAZING. Beautiful writing. Exquisite detail.

My first Zola novel and it won't be my last.
His writing is beautiful, intense, graphic, gritty but real and human.
Naturalism at its best.
Such a wonderful micro analysis of the daily life and toils & tribulations of the French agricultural peasants post revolution on the cusp of industrialisation and the last days of the small petty land owner class.

His characters are hilarious, like Dickens but, unlike Dickens they are not larger than life or ridiculously overly grotesque or cartoonish, but very real indeed.

Leighton Pugh is the perfect narrator with great character shifts.

Some real laugh out loud moments too amongst these odd but strangely familiar characters, particularly the poor priest 🤣.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!