Something Cheery from Germinal

"There was wretchedness everywhere. For weeks since they had had nothing to eat. Even the odor of onion had gone, that strong odor which revealed the settlement from afar across the country; now there was nothing by the smell of old vaults, the dampness of holes in which nothing lives. Vague sounds were dying out, stifled tears, lost oaths; and in the silence which slowly grew heavier one could hear the sleep of hunger coming on, the collapse of bodies thrown across beds in the nightmares of empty bellies."

-- Germinal, Emile Zola