The Attack on the Mill

Emile Zola’s work was published at the height of the Great Patriotic War. It transports the reader back to the times of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. That war brought its fist down upon a peaceful working corner. Uncle Mèrle’s mill becomes a fortress defended by French soldiers. But war requires even peaceful people to take up arms. And Dominique takes a rifle. Even if he is Belgian, even if Belgium is not at war with Germany, there is also another, higher right— the right to resist arrogant violent aggressors.