Short biography of French writer Emile Zola - his life and works. He wrote novels that dealt with harsh realities in working-class life.

Émile Zola (1840-1902), novelist, journalist, critic and naturalist, was an influential French writer and social reformist. Aside from espousing the Dreyfus affair, he was known for his successful books Thérèse Raquin and the Les Rougon-Macquart Series of novels.

Early Life

Zola was born in Paris, the son of an Italian engineer. He grew up in Aix-en-Provence, southeast of France, educated at the College Bourbon (now College Mignet). When he was seven his father died leaving the family with financial problems. He moved back with his mother to Paris and studied in Lycee Saint-Louis.

Writing Career

After failing his final school exam, he went to work for a publisher as a clerk, but soon became an active journalist. He began writing novels and gained his first success with Therese Raquin, a story with a very powerful picture of remorse, which was published when he was 27 years old.

Aged 31, Zola began writing the great novels called Les Rougon-Macquart series of 20 novels about 'the natural and social history of a family under the Second Empire,' which he didn't complete until 22 year later. This series comprises a score of books, all linked to each other by the appearance of one or more members of the family, describing their lives and adventures. In order to apply his theory to the study of le document humain, Zola mastered the technical details of most professions, occupations and crafts, as well as the history of recent events in France at that time.

Political Journalist

Émile Zola was also a political journalist, critical of the French Emperor Napoleon III and his Second Empire. He wrote about all levels of French society, from prostitutes (Nana), poor farm laborers (The Soil) to coal miners (Germinal). His writings portrayed the harsh realities of life, nevertheless reflecting his attachment to humane values and the need to defend them.

In the later years of the Empire, he had formed a sort of informal society with Gustave Flaubert, Daudet, the Goncourts, and Ivan Turgenev, out of which grew the 'Naturalist school'.

The Dreyfus Affair

Zola, supported by some colleagues like Anatole France, espoused in the Dreyfus Affair, the cause of Jewish soldier Alfred Dreyfus who was accused of treason, in his famous letter I Accuse! to the president of France in 1898. He was brought to trial for libel (1898), convicted and sentenced, and removed from the Legion of Honor. Rather than go to jail, he escaped for a year to England, but welcomed back as a hero.

Final Years

Aged 62, he died in Paris, suffocated by carbon monoxide poisoning, from charcoal fumes coming in the chimney of his home.

Trivia

The Life of Émile Zola, a biographical film about his involvement with the Dreyfus Affair and his friendship with painter Cezanne won the Academy Award for best picture in 1937.

Émile Zola's Books:

• Thérèse Raquin, 1867
• The Belly of Paris, 1873
• The Grog Shop, 1877
• Nana (1880)
• Germinal (1885)
• The Soil (1887)
• The Human Animal (1890)
• The Three Cities in 3 Volumes (1894-98)
• I Accuse! (1898)
• The Four Gospels in 4 Volumes (1899-1902)

Sources:

Chambers Biographical Dictionary (2002)

Larousse Dictionary of Writers, Ed. by Rosemary Goring (1994)