The national struggle to resist superior military force ends in crushing defeat and humiliating surrender, while men who once fought together are driven apart by blame and recriminations for the defeat, and the women they love suffer as much from revolt and suppression at home as they did from invasion. "War is hell" has never been so clearly illustrated as in this story of wisdom come too late.

Author Biography

Emile Edouard Charles Antoine Zola (1840 - 1902) was a French novelist, playwright, journalist, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J'accuse. Zola was nominated for the first and second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 and 1902.