Germinie Lacerteux

Germinie Lacerteux is the devoted servant of an elderly spinster, Mademoiselle de Varandeuil, who loves her like a daughter and never suspects her secret. Lonely and passionate, Germinie falls in love with Jupillon, the selfish son of a dairywoman, gives him all her savings, steals to support him, drinks and sinks into misery, while by day she continues to serve her mistress faithfully, until illness brings her to the public hospital.

The brothers Edmond and Jules de Goncourt published the novel in 1865, after discovering, on the death of their own servant, the hidden double life she had led. In their preface they claimed for the poor the right to be the subject of serious novels, and the book paved the way for the naturalism of Zola's L'Assommoir. Compare George Moore's Esther Waters.