Known in English also as The Earth, this novel is set among the peasant farmers of the Beauce, the flat grain country south-west of Paris. An old farmer decides to divide his land among his children, and the arrangement stirs up greed, jealousy and bitter quarrels over every field. Zola presents rural life without sentiment, showing the hard labour, the hunger for property and the harsh bargains made within families. It is a frank, powerful part of the Rougon-Macquart series and a counterweight to romantic ideas of the countryside.