Conservative & working-class Jean Macquart is an experienced middle-aged soldier in the French army who has endured deep personal loss. When he first meets the wealthy & mercurial Maurice Levasseur who never seems to have suffered his hatred is immediate. But after they are thrown together during the disastrous Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 the pair are compelled to understand one other. Forging a profound friendship they must struggle together to endure a disorganised & brutal war the savage destruction of Frances Second Empire & the fall of Napoleon III. One of the greatest of all war novels The Debacle" is the nineteenth novel in Zolas great Rougon-Macquart cycle. A forceful & deeply moving tale of close friendship it is also a fascinating chronicle of the events that were to lead in the words of Zola himself to the murder of a nation."