Serious recommendation to anybody with the stamina
Emile Zola's 'Rougon-Macquart' series of twenty novels
Better ones include 'Germinal' and 'Nana' but some of the lesser-known ones are masterpieces 'L'Assommoir (The Drunkard)' and 'La Débâcle' being two of the best novels I have ever read
La Bête Humaine' was made into a fine classic French film in the fifties - well worth looking out for
Though the novels stand alone, it does help tor read them in some order - and abandon the ones you can't get on with (had problems with the religios ones)
Just come across a 'recommended order of reading' list I would concur with
Jim Carroll
La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
Son Excellence Eugène Rougon (1876)
La Curée (1871-2)
L'Argent (1891)
Le Rêve (1888)
La Conquête de Plassans (1874)
Pot-Bouille (1882)
Au Bonheur des Dames (1883)
La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret (1875)
Une Page d'amour (1878)
Le Ventre de Paris (1873)
La Joie de vivre (1884)
L'Assommoir (1877)
L'Œuvre (1886)
La Bête humaine (1890)
Germinal (1885)
Nana (1880)
La Terre (1887)
La Débâcle (1892)
Le Docteur Pascal (1893)