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The penultimate novel in Zola's Les Rougon-Macquart is one of the rare ones I found uninteresting to a certain degree. More than any other of the twenty novels of the series, here Zola immerses himself in his meticulous attention to historical detail. This is arguably necessary from the point of view of his goal writ large: to portray the downfall and final, disastrous end of the Second Empire and Napoleon III. So, yes, yes, he has to cover the endless marches across northern France, Sedan and its horrors, with a rushed final act discussing both far-removed and in-thy-face the stupidity of the Commune and the government reaction to it.
As a work of fiction of this kind, with a clear social and historical goal, one can expect a certain degree of this kind of thing, the detail and misplaced characterization which fixates on the 7th Corps as a whole while most of its individual foci are bland and soulless. Jean Macquart (of "La Terre") and his subordinate Maurice are the real soul of the book and Zola doesn't spend nearly enough time on them. When he does, the novel shines. Throw in Maurice's twin sister, Henriette, whose husband gets shot in the face by Prussians, and you've got the whole, holy triumvirate of Marianne, the peasant, and the mad-dog revolutionary with a heart of gold. Their story was what I liked the most and their ill-fated and ill-timed resolution at the end was outstanding.
Don't misunderstand: much of the historical bits detailing the horror of the siege of Paris, the virtual garrison prison of Sedan, and the little terrible things here and there that occur in the heat and wake of battle, were just great. But as a literary whole, the book tends to peak and trough.