The story is set against the background of the political and military tumults that ended the reign of Napoléon III and the Second Empire in 1870, in particular the Franco-Prussian War, the Battle of Sedan, and the Paris Commune.

Despite the hostility with which it was initially received by Bonapartists, monarchists, and in particular by veterans of the French army, La Débâcle was Zola's greatest commercial success, selling one hundred fifty thousand copies within five months of its release.

[2] The novel starts in the summer of 1870, when after serious diplomatic tensions, France has declared war on Prussia (the nucleus of Germany which was then emerging as one nation out of a number of disparate cities, regions and principalities).

In a reaction to pressure and movements by the Prussians, the march deviates from its original objective to the north and the French army ends up in the neighbourhood of the city of Sedan, in the Meuse river valley near the Belgian border.

During this battle, the Prussian army succeeds in encircling Sedan and moving its artillery to the hills surrounding the city, trapping the French in the valley in a desperate position.

The part describes the battle as seen by the protagonists, Jean, Maurice, Henriette and Weiss, her husband, a civilian, who dies defending his house against the Prussians as they invade his village.

The novel ends by bringing three of its main characters together: Jean, the dying Maurice and his sister Henriette who has travelled to Paris after having lost contact with her brother for more than two months.

[5] Graham King criticizes Vizetelly's translation of La Debacle for its use of unrealistic dialogue between the French soldiers and his excessive attention to unimportant details;[1] E.P.

... in La Débâcle, which treats of the horrors of war with microscopic detail, the author maintains an absolute silence on some of the worst features of a campaign which amateurs of the morbid and horrible would have expected M. Zola to make ghoulish and effective use of.