Germinie Lacerteux, published in 1865 by the brothers Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, is the novel that helped establish literary naturalism before Zola made the movement famous. Based on the secret life of their own housemaid, it depicts with unflinching documentary detail the descent of a working-class woman into alcoholism, promiscuity, and debt, concealed behind a facade of devoted service.
Its preface, demanding the right to write about the lower classes with the same seriousness as the aristocracy, is a manifesto for social realism. Download this public-domain English translation as a free EPUB.