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ZOLA, EMILE EDOUARD CHARLES ANTOINE (...

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 1001 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ZOLA, EMILE EDOUARD See also:CHARLES See also:ANTOINE (1840-1902) , See also:French novelist, was See also:born in See also:Paris on the 2nd of See also:April 1840, his See also:father being an engineer, See also:part See also:Italian and part See also:Greek, and his See also:mother a Frenchwoman. The father seems to have been an energetic, visionary See also:man, who, dying while his only son was a little lad, See also:left to his See also:family no better See also:provision than a lawsuit against the See also:municipality of the See also:town of See also:Aix It was at Aix, which figures as Plassans in so many of his novels, that the boy received the first part of his See also:education. Thence he proceeded, in 1858, to Paris, where, as later at See also:Marseilles, he failed to obtain his See also:bachelor's degree. Then came a few years of terrible poverty; but at the beginning of 1862 he obtained a clerkship, at the modest See also:salary of a See also:pound a See also:week, in the See also:house of See also:Hachette the publisher. Meanwhile he was See also:writing apace, but nothing of particular merit. His first See also:book, Conies a Ninon, appeared on the 24th of See also:October 1864, and attracted some See also:attention, and in See also:January 1866 he determined to abandon clerking and take to literature. Vigorous and aggressive as a critic, his articles on literature and See also:art in Villemessant's See also:paper L'Evenemenl created a See also:good See also:deal of See also:interest. So did the gruesome but powerful novel, Therese Raquin (1867). Meanwhile, with characteristic See also:energy, Zola was projecting something more important: the creation of a See also:world of his own, like that of See also:Balzac's Comedie Humaine—the See also:history of a family in its various ramifications during the Second See also:Empire. The history of this family, the Rougon-Macquart, was to be told in a See also:series of novels containing a scientific study of See also:heredity—See also:science was always Zola's ignis fatuus—and a picture of French See also:life and society. The first novel of the series, La See also:Fortune See also:des Rougon, appeared in book See also:form at the end of 1871. It was followed by La Curee (18i4), Le Ventre de Paris (1874), La Conquete de Plassans (1875), La Faute de l' See also:Abbe Mouret (1875), Son Excellence See also:Eugene Rougon (1876)—all books unquestionably of immense ability, and in a measure successful, but not See also:great popular successes.

Then came L'Assommoir (1878?), the epic of drink, and the author's fortune was made. Edition followed edition. He became the most discussed, the most read, the most bought novelist in See also:

France—the See also:sale of L'Assommoir being even exceeded by that of Nana (1880) and La Debacle (1892). From the Fortune des Rougon to the Docteur See also:Pascal (1893) there are some twenty novels in the Rougon-Macquart series, the second See also:half of which includes the powerfu'- novels Germinal (1885) and La Terre (1888). In 1888 Zola departed from his usual vein in the idyllic See also:story of Le Retie. Zola also wrote a series of three romances on cities,' See also:Lourdes, See also:Rome, Paris (1894-98), novels on the " gospels " of See also:population (Fecondite) and See also:work (Travail), a See also:volume of plays, and several volumes of See also:criticism, and other things. These books are based on study and observation; the novels are crowded with characters. The whole is a gigantic See also:opus, the See also:fruit of immense labour, of an admirable tenacity—so many pages written, See also:morning after morning, without inter-See also:mission, during some See also:thirty years. He prided himself on his See also:motto, Nulla See also:dies sine linea. Zola was the apostle of the " realistic " or " naturalistic " school; but he was in truth not a " naturalist " at all, in so far as " See also:naturalism " is to be regarded as a See also:record of fact. He was an idealist, but while "other idealists idealize the nobler elements in human nature, so has he, for the most part—the later books, however, show improvement—idealized the elements that are bestial. He saw man's lust, greed, gluttony, as in a See also:vision, magnified, overwhelming, portentous.

And what he saw he presented with tremendous See also:

power. His See also:style may lack the classic qualities of French See also:prose—lightness, delicacy, sparkle; it certainly has not See also:Daudet's See also:colour and felicity oftouch. The first impression it produces may be one of heaviness, and the later " gospels " on population and work are distinctly ponderous. But for rendering the gloomy horror of the sub= jects in which he most delights—detail on detail being accumulated till the result is overwhelming—Zola has no See also:superior. Some of his descriptions of crowds in See also:movement have never been surpassed. Zola played a very important part in the See also:Dreyfus affair, which convulsed French politics and social life at the end of the 19th See also:century. At an See also:early See also:stage he came to the conclusion that Dreyfus was the See also:innocent victim of a nefarious See also:conspiracy, and on the 13th of January 1898, with his usual intrepidity, he published in the Aurore newspaper, in the form of a See also:letter beginning with the words J'accuse, a terrible denunciation of all those who had had a See also:hand in hounding down that unfortunate officer. Zola's See also:object was a See also:prosecution for See also:libel, and a judicial inquiry into the whole af'See also:aire, and at the trial, which took See also:place in Paris in See also:February, a fierce See also:flood of See also:light was thrown on the See also:case. The chiefs of the See also:army put forth all their power, and Zola was condemned. He appealed. On the 2nd of April the Cour de Cassation quashed the proceedings. A second trial took place at See also:Versailles, on the 18th of See also:July, and without waiting the result Zola, by the See also:advice of his counsel and See also:friends, and for reasons of legal See also:strategy, abruptly left France and took See also:refuge in See also:England.

Here he remained in hiding, writing Fecondite, till the 4th of See also:

June 1899, when, immediately on See also:hearing that there was to be a revision of the first Dreyfus trial, he returned to Paris. Whatever may be thought of the afJaire itself, there can be no question of Zola's superb courage and disinterestedness. On the morning of the 29th of See also:September 1902 Zola was found dead in the bedroom of his Paris house, having been accidentally asphyxiated by the fumes from a defective flue. He received a public funeral, at which See also:Captain' Dreyfus was See also:present. Anatole France delivered an impassioned oration at the See also:grave. At the See also:time of his See also:death Zola had just completed a novel, Virile, dealing with the incidents of the Dreyfus trial. A sequel, See also:Justice, had been planned, but not executed. After a life of See also:constant struggle and an obloquy which never relaxed, the sensational See also:close of Zola's career was the See also:signal for an extraordinary burst of eulogy. The See also:verdict of posterity will probably be kinder than the first, and less unmeasured than the second. Zola's See also:literary position would have more than qualified him for the French See also:Academy.' He was several times a See also:candidate in vain. (F. T.

M.) See Emile Zola, Novelist and Reformer (1904), giving a full See also:

account of his life and work, by E. A. See also:Vizetelly, who translated and edited many of his See also:works in See also:English; also P. See also:Alexis, Emile Zola, Notes d'un ami; F. Brunetiere, Le See also:Roman Naturaliste (1883); vols. iii., v. and vi. of the See also:Journal des See also:Goncourt (1888-92); E. See also:Hennequin, Quelques Ecrivains See also:francais (189o); R. H. Sherard, Emile Zola: a See also:biographical and See also:critical study (19o3); A. See also:Laporte, Emile Zola, l'homme et l'txuvre (1894) with a bibliography. A See also:complete See also:report of the proceedings against Zola is printed in Le Proces Zola (2 vols. 1898, Eng. trans. 1898).

End of Article: ZOLA, EMILE EDOUARD CHARLES ANTOINE (1840-1902)

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