Emile zola biography cortacadie en

French writer, a prominent representative of naturalism in literature Date of Birth: Country: France

Content:

1. Biography of Émile Zola
2. Early Career
3. The Rougon-Macquart Series
4. Later Works and Political Involvement

Biography of Émile Zola

Émile Zola was a prominent French writer and a vivid representative of naturalism in literature.

He was born on April 2, , in Paris, to an Italian-French family, with his father being an Italian engineer. Zola spent his childhood and school years in Aix-en-Provence, where one of his closest friends was the artist Paul Cézanne. At the age of seven, Zola's father passed away, leaving the family in dire financial circumstances.

Emile zola biography cortacadie Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (/ ˈzoʊlə /, [1][2] also US: / zoʊˈlɑː /; [3][4] French: [emil zɔla]; 2 April – 29 September ) [5] was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. [6].

In , Zola's mother moved with him to Paris, hoping for assistance from her late husband's friends.

Early Career

In the early part of , Zola managed to secure a position at the publishing house "Hachette." After working there for about four years, he resigned with the hope of supporting himself through his literary work.

In , Zola published his first novel, "La Confession de Claude" (Confession of Claude), which was a harshly veiled autobiography. The book brought him scandalous fame, which was further multiplied by his passionate defense of Édouard Manet's paintings in his review of the art exhibition.

The Rougon-Macquart Series

Around , Zola conceived the idea of a series of novels dedicated to one family, the Rougon-Macquarts, whose fate was explored over four to five generations.

The variety of storylines in the novels provided an opportunity to portray many aspects of French life during the Second Empire. The first few books in the series did not garner much interest, but the seventh volume, "L'Assommoir" (The Drinking Den, ), achieved great success and brought Zola both fame and wealth. He acquired a house in Médan near Paris and gathered young writers around him, including J.K.

Huysmans and Guy de Maupassant, forming a short-lived "naturalistic school."

Later Works and Political Involvement

Zola's subsequent novels in the series were met with tremendous interest, both praise and criticism. The twenty volumes of the Rougon-Macquart series represent Zola's major literary achievement, although his earlier work, "Thérèse Raquin" (), a profound exploration of guilt that befalls a murderer and his accomplice, should also be noted.

In his later years, Zola created two more series: "Les Trois Villes" (The Three Cities, ) – Lourdes, Rome, Paris; and "Les Quatre Évangiles" (The Four Gospels, ), which remained unfinished (the fourth volume was not written).

By the time Zola completed the series, he enjoyed worldwide recognition and was considered France's greatest writer after Victor Hugo.

Emile zola biography cortacadie wikipedia Émile Zola was a French novelist, critic, and political activist who was the most prominent French novelist of the late 19th century. He was noted for his theories of naturalism, which underlie his monumental novel series Les Rougon-Macquart, and for his intervention in the Dreyfus Affair.

His involvement in the Dreyfus affair () was particularly sensational. Zola became convinced that Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French General Staff, had been wrongly convicted in for selling military secrets to Germany. Zola's exposé of the army leadership, which bore the primary responsibility for the evident judicial error, took the form of an open letter to the President of the Republic, titled "J'accuse" (I Accuse, ).

Zola was sentenced to a year of imprisonment for libel, but he escaped to England and returned to France in when the situation had changed in Dreyfus's favor. On September 28, , Zola tragically died in his Paris apartment due to carbon monoxide poisoning, most likely orchestrated by his political enemies.