This dissertation studies Émile Zola's Germinal and Au Bonheur des dames from the perspective of economic history, industrial economics and marketing. Its goal is to determine what these novels disclose on how companies functioned in the second half of the 19th century, and to which extent they anticipate the economic reality of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Zola's fictional companies are not only representative of the real companies of that era but they also reflect some characteristics and strategies of the real firms of the early 21st century. Zola's talents, his meticulous method of research, his technique of economic analysis which significantly differs from that of an economic historian, and his ongoing modernity today make these novels a must for economic historians and economists alike. The detailed comparison between the fictional companies in the two novels and the real conditions in the mining and the retail industries ! vouch for their historical credibility. This study also aims at drawing a parallel between Zola's fictional companies and today's firms by analyzing their respective characteristics and practices in terms of industrial economics and marketing. Furthermore, this dissertation attempts to understand why many contemporary economists seem to suggest that the origin of the economic facts and practices studied here date back a couple of decades only.
