L'Assommoir [lasɔmwaʁ], published as a serial in 1876, and in book form in 1877, is the seventh novel in Émile Zola's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart.

The novel is principally the story of Gervaise Macquart, who is featured briefly in the first novel in the series, La Fortune des Rougon, running away to Paris with her shiftless lover Lantier to work as a washerwoman in a hot, busy laundry in one of the seedier areas of the city.

Coupeau is injured in a fall from the roof of a new hospital he is working on, and during his lengthy convalescence he takes first to idleness, then to gluttony, and eventually to drink.

Gervaise becomes infected by her husband's newfound laziness and, in an effort to impress others, spends her money on lavish feasts and accumulates uncontrolled debt.

The home is further disrupted by the return of Lantier, who is warmly welcomed by Coupeau - by this point losing interest in both Gervaise and life itself, and becoming seriously ill.

Zola spent an immense amount of time researching Parisian street argot for his most realistic novel to that date, using a large number of obscure contemporary slang words and curses to capture an authentic atmosphere.

The novelist also drew criticism from some quarters for the depth of his reporting, either for being too coarse and vulgar or for portraying working-class people as shiftless drunkards.

The noun is a colloquial term popular in late nineteenth-century Paris, referring to a shop selling cheap liquor distilled on the premises "where the working classes could drown their sorrows cheaply and drink themselves senseless".