International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Emile Zola was a French novelist and social critic whose novels criticized all aspects of Second Empire France (1852–70). In 1898 he protested the imprisonment of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French army who had been falsely convicted of being a traitor. This volatile article J'accuse (“I Accuse”) polarized the country and resulted in his conviction for criminal libel. Emile Edouard Charles Antoine Zola was born on April 12, 1840 in Paris to François Zola and Emilie Aubert. François died seven years later, leaving his family destitute. Zola was educated at Aix College and granted a scholarship to attend Lycée Saint Louis, but he never obtained a degree. He was unsuccessful in several vocations until he began to write freelance columns for newspapers as a political journalist. Zola's work illustrated a strong dislike for Emperor Napoleon III, who ruled France from 1852 to 1870. Zola's writing went beyond journalism. Early in his career he wrote a number of essays, short stories, plays, and novels. He obtained a position with M. M. Hachette, a prominent publishing house, but lost it in 1865 when his lurid novel, La Confession de Claude (Claude's Confession) , appeared in print. In 1867 Zola published Thérèse Raquin , the novel which brought him fame. From 1871 to 1893 he worked on a successful series (Les Rougon-Macquat) about the travails of several generations ... log in or subscribe to read full text