In the five stories in this volume, Emile Zola describes the circumstances surrounding the deaths of five people from very different social contexts. A nobleman, a person from the upper middle class, a small businessman, a jobber, and a peasant-all of whom have reached the end of their lives-as well as their family members, are the heroes of these detailed and soberly narrated stories. --- A literary study of the social differences and the value of life in France at the end of the 19th Century from the viewpoint of the "Master of Naturalism".