This article deals with Emile Zola’s Germinal and Johan Falkberget’s An-Magritt, the first novel in the series Nattens brød, with a focus on the approach the two novels take to work and working-class literature. Drawing on theories of work and working, such as Schwimmer’s dichotomy identification and alienation, I explore working-class portraits of workers and their attitudes to work in the two novels. What views on work, workers and/or working-class literature are predominant? What forms of work are represented? What characterises work-related conflicts? How can the two novels be read in terms of the traditional criteria of working-class literature  (Richard Steffen, Lars Furuland) and later definitions (Nilsson) when both novels resist any attempt to place them in either category?