History Creator / EmileZola

* ''Les Rougon-Macquart''

* GenerationalSaga: The cycle ''Les Rougon-Macquart'' is the quintessential French example of a whole literary saga about different generations of the same family.

Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was a UsefulNotes/{{Fr|ance}}ench novelist, playwright, and journalist who is one of the central figures of naturalism, a literary aiming to employ detachment, scientific objectivism, and social commentary with a deterministic philosophical viewpoint. He also vouched for the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus during the (in)famous national affair caused by the latter's trials, even penning the [[StronglyWordedLetter open letter]] headlined ''J'Accuse...!''

* ''Film/AnOfficerAndASpy'' (2019). The Dreyfus Affair again. He makes short appearances, portrayed by André Marcon.

* ''Film/AnOfficerAndASpy'' (2019). Makes short appearances, portrayed by André Marcon.

Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was a French novelist, playwright, and journalist who is one of the central figures of naturalism, a literary aiming to employ detachment, scientific objectivism, and social commentary with a deterministic philosophical viewpoint. He also vouched for the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus during the (in)famous national affair caused by the latter's trials, even penning the [[StronglyWordedLetter open letter]] headlined ''J'Accuse...!''

* ''Film/TheLifeOfEmileZola'' (1937), about his role in the Dreyfus Affair. Portrayed by Paul Muni.

[[AC:Literature:

* WriteWhoYouKnow: ''Lourdes'' has an unflattering example in the form of Elise Rouquet and La Grivotte. They were respectively based on Marie Lemarchand, a young pilgrim girl afflicted with tuberculosis, lupus, and skin ulcerations, and Marie Lebranchu, another pilgrim afflicted with the final stages of tuberculosis. Zola, a staunch atheist, came to Lourdes in 1892, intending to discredit the miraculous healings that were said to occur there. He attached himself to these women and saw them wash themselves with the water of Lourdes and emerge cured. Refusing to believe that their cures were real, he incorporated these experiences into ''Lourdes'' and rewrote them to align with his naturalistic beliefs. In the work, Elise Rouquet washes her face in the waters of Lourdes, but the doctors, upon examining her, were unable to determine whether she really has lupus, an illness that responds well to washing, or if the cure is psychosomatic. La Grivotte is a manic woman whose "curing" of tuberculosis is attributed to her neurosis, and she has a fatal relapse on the train ride back home (for the record, Lebranchu and Lemarchand remained in perfect health and died many years after their pilgrimage to Lourdes.)

* ''Literature/ThereseRaquin''

After finishing the Rougon-Macquart novels, he began working on ''Three Cities'' (1894-8), a trilogy of novels consisting of ''Lourdes'' (1894), ''Rome'' (1896), and ''Paris'' (1898) that all violently attacked the Catholic Church. On 22 December 1894, while Zola was working on the ''Three Cities'' trilogy, the Jewish captain Alfred Dreyfus was found guilty by a court martial for trumped-up charges of treason. In response, he wrote the article ''J'Accuse...!'' in 1898, vouching for the innocence of Dreyfus. He was found guilty of libeling the Minister of War and struck with a year in prison and a fine of 3000 francs. He appealed for retrial on a technicality, but the retrial was delayed; he fled to the UK instead of going to court on 18 July. He returned to France a year later to work on his ''Four Gospels'', a tetralogy intending to illustrate the principles of human life: ''Fecundity'' (1899), ''Toil'' (1901), ''Truth'' (1903), and ''Justice'' (he did not live to complete it).

Starting from 1852, he went to school at the College Bourbon at Aix, where he became friends with Baptistin Baille and Paul Cézanne, the latter who would grow up to be a major Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painter. Ironically, it was ''Zola'', not Cézanne, who won the school prize for drawing. In 1858, the Zolas moved back to Paris with Cézanne joining him, and he studied at the Lycée Saint-Louis, intending to get a career in law as his mother planned, but he failed his baccalauréat examination twice.

[[quoteright:423:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ea7de013eff357ebf3c16487ff2b6621_0.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:423:Self-photograph, c. 1895-1900]]

Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was a French novelist, playwright, and journalist who is one of the central figures of naturalism, a literary aiming to employ detachment, scientific objectivism, and social commentary with a deterministic philosophical viewpoint. He also vouched for the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus, even penning the [[StronglyWordedLetter open letter]] headlined ''J'Accuse...!''

Zola was born in Paris, the only child of Francesco Zola, an Italian engineer, and Emilie, the daughter of a glazier. The family moved to Aix-en-Provence when Zola was three. Four years later, in 1847, his father died, leaving his mother on a meager pension.

Starting from 1852, Zola went to school at the College Bourbon at Aix, where he became friends with Baptistin Baille and Paul Cézanne, the latter who would grow up to be a major Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painter. Ironically, it was ''Zola'', not Cézanne, who won the school prize for drawing. In 1858, the Zolas moved back to Paris with Cézanne joining him, and Zola studied at the Lycée Saint-Louis, intending to get a career in law as his mother planned, but he failed his baccalauréat examination twice.

Before achieving success as a writer, Zola worked for minimal pay as a clerk in a shipping firm, then in the sales department for the publisher Hachette in 1862, where he wrote literary and art reviews for newspapers. Among his early works include ''Tales for Ninon'' (1864) and ''Claude's Confession'' (1865), the latter which became a succés de scandal thanks to its bedroom scenes. Later, he met Alexandrine-Gabrielle Meley, the illegitimate daughter of teenage parents who separated; Meley would become his wife five years later.

In 1866, Zola left Hachette to take up a more lucrative job as a literary critic for ''L'Événement'', for which he published very scathing articles; the magazine was eventually suppressed by the authorities. In the meantime, Zola also discovered the works of the historian and philosopher Hippolyte Taine and became profoundly influenced by his work. The following year, Zola published ''Thérèse Raquin'' (1867), another succés de scandal and one that earned Zola lasting notoriety. Zola later added a preface to the second edition of his novel, establishing himself as a "Naturalist". He then began working on his ''Les Rougon-Macquart'' series of novels while working as a journalist for a number of different newspapers.

On 31 May 1870, Zola married Meley in a registry office, then moved to Marseilles because of the Franco-Prussian war. On March 1871, Zola returned to Paris and published ''The Fortune of the Rougons'' (1871) the following October, the first novel of his ''Les Rougon-Macquart'' series. He continued writing for the series, with the seventh novel ''L'Assommoir'' (1877) bringing him wealth and fame. The last novel, ''Doctor Pascal'', was published in 1893. During that time, Zola took Jeanne Rozerot as his mistress in 1888; the couple had a daughter, Denise, in 1889, and a son, Jacques, in 1891.

After finishing the Rougon-Macquart novels, Zola began working on ''Three Cities'' (1894-8), a trilogy of novels consisting of ''Lourdes'' (1894), ''Rome'' (1896), and ''Paris'' (1898) that all violently attacked the Catholic Church. On 22 December 1894, while Zola was working on the ''Three Cities'' trilogy, the Jewish captain Alfred Dreyfus was found guilty by a court martial for trumped-up charges of treason. In response, Zola wrote the article ''J'Accuse...!'' in 1898, vouching for the innocence of Dreyfus. He was found guilty of libeling the Minister of War and struck with a year in prison and a fine of 3000 francs. He appealed for retrial on a technicality, but the retrial was delayed; he fled to England instead of going to court on 18 July. He returned to France a year later to work on his ''Four Gospels'', a tetralogy intending to illustrate the principles of human life: ''Fecundity'' (1899), ''Toil'' (1901), ''Truth'' (1903), and ''Justice'' (Zola did not live to complete it).

On 29 December 1902, Zola dropped dead from the fumes of his bedroom fire; the chimney was capped either by accident or deliberately by an anti-Dreyfusard; he had a public funeral on 5 October and was initially buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre, but his remains were transferred to the Panthéon on 4 June 1908. Zola was survived by his wife, with whom he had no children.

* GenerationalSaga: The cycle ''Les Rougon-Macquart'' is the quintessential example of a whole literary saga about different generations of the same family.

* StronglyWordedLetter: ''J'Accuse...!'', an open letter he wrote to Félix Faure, the President of France, accusing the government of antisemitism and Dreyfus' unlawful sentencing.

After finishing the Rougon-Macquart novels, Zola began working on ''Three Cities'' (1894-8), a trilogy of novels consisting of ''Lourdes'' (1894), ''Rome'' (1896), and ''Paris'' (1898) that all violently attacked the Catholic Church. On 22 December 1894, while Zola was working on the ''Three Cities'' trilogy, the Jewish captain Alfred Dreyfus was found guilty by a court martial for trumped-up charges of treason. In response, Zola wrote the article ''J'Accuse...!'' in 1898, vouching for the innocence of Dreyfus. He was found guilty of labeling the Minister of War and struck with a year in prison and a fine of 3000 francs. He appealed for retrial on a technicality, but the retrial was delayed; he fled to England instead of going to court on 18 July. He returned to France a year later to work on his ''Four Gospels'', a tetralogy intending to illustrate the principles of human life: ''Fecundity'' (1899), ''Toil'' (1901), ''Truth'' (1903), and ''Justice'' (Zola did not live to complete it).

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Two characters in ''Lourdes'', Elise Rouquet and La Grivotte, were respectively based on Marie Lemarchand, a 19-year-old girl afflicted with tuberculosis, lupus, and skin ulcerations, and Marie Lebranchu, afflicted with the final stages of tuberculosis. Zola, a staunch atheist, attached himself to these women when he came to Lourdes in 1892, intending to discredit the miraculous healings that were said to occur there. He saw these women wash themselves with the water of Lourdes and emerged cured, but refusing to believe that their cures were real, incorporated these experiences into ''Lourdes'' and rewrote them according to his naturalistic beliefs. In ''Lourdes'', Elise Rouquet washes her face in the waters of Lourdes, but the doctors, upon examining her, were unable to determine whether she really has lupus, an illness that responds well to washing, or if the cure is psychosomatic. La Grivotte is a manic woman whose "curing" of tuberculosis is attributed to her neurosis, and she has a fatal relapse on the train ride back home (for the record, Lebranchu and Lemarchand remained in perfect health and died many years after their pilgrimage to Lourdes.)

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Two characters in ''Lourdes'', Elise Rouquet and La Grivotte, were respectively based on Marie Lemarchand, a 19-year-old girl afflicted with tuberculosis, lupus, and skin ulcerations, and Marie Lebranchu, afflicted with the final stages of tuberculosis. Zola, a staunch atheist, attached himself to these women when he came to Lourdes in 1892, intending to discredit the miraculous healings that were said to occur there and, refusing to believe that Lemarchand and Lebranchu's cures were miraculous, incorporated these experiences into ''Lourdes'' with a more naturalistic explanation. In ''Lourdes'', Elise Rouquet washes her face in the waters of Lourdes, but the doctors, upon examining her, were unable to determine whether she really has lupus, an illness that responds well to washing, or if the cure is psychosomatic. La Grivotte is a manic woman whose "curing" of tuberculosis is attributed to her neurosis, and she has a fatal relapse on the train ride back home (for the record, Lebranchu and Lemarchand remained in perfect health and died many years after their pilgrimage to Lourdes.)

After finishing the Rougon-Macquart novels, Zola, a staunch atheist, began working on ''Three Cities'' (1894-8), a trilogy of novels consisting of ''Lourdes'' (1894), ''Rome'' (1896), and ''Paris'' (1898) that all violently attacked the Catholic Church. Notably, in 1892, Zola went to Lourdes with the intent of discrediting the miraculous healings that were said to be occurring there and attached himself to Marie Lemarchand, a 19-year-old girl afflicted with tuberculosis, lupus, and skin ulcerations, and Marie Lebranchu, afflicted with the final stages of tuberculosis. He watched both women step into the waters of Lourdes and emerge completely cured but refused to believe the cures were miraculous. He incorporated his experiences into ''Lourdes'', basing the case of La Grivotte on that of Lebranchu, but in the novel, La Grivotte had a fatal relapse of tuberculosis on the train ride home (for the record, Lebranchu and Lemarchand remained in perfect health and died many years after their pilgrimage to Lourdes. Not that Zola cared). This led him to write the ''Four Gospels'', a tetralogy intending to illustrate the principles of human life: ''Fecundity'' (1899), ''Toil'' (1901), ''Truth'' (1903), and ''Justice'' (Zola did not live to complete it).

On 22 December 1894, while Zola was working on the ''Three Cities'' trilogy, the Jewish captain Alfred Dreyfus was found guilty by a court martial for trumped-up charges of treason. In response, Zola wrote the article ''J'Accuse...!'' in 1898, vouching for the innocence of Dreyfus. He was found guilty of labeling the Minister of War and struck with a year in prison and a fine of 3000 francs. He appealed for retrial on a technicality, but the retrial was delayed; he fled to England instead of going to court on 18 July. He returned to France a year later to work on his ''Four Gospels''.

Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was a French novelist, playwright, and journalist who is one of the central figures of naturalism, a literary aiming to employ detachment, scientific objectivism, and social commentary with a deterministic philosophical viewpoint. He also vouched for the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus, even penning the open letter headlined ''J'Accuse...!''

After finishing the Rougon-Macquart novels, Zola, a staunch atheist, began working on the ''Three Cities'' (1894-8), a trilogy that violently attacked the Catholic Church, starting with ''Lourdes'' (1894), ''Rome'' (1896), and ending with ''Paris'' (1898). Notably, in 1892, Zola went to Lourdes with the intent of discrediting the miraculous healings that were said to be occurring there and attached himself to Marie Lemarchand, a 19-year-old girl afflicted with tuberculosis, lupus, and skin ulcerations, and Marie Lebranchu, afflicted with the final stages of tuberculosis. He watched both women step into the waters of Lourdes and emerge completely cured but refused to believe the cures were miraculous. He incorporated these cases in ''Lourdes'' and based the case of La Grivotte on that of Lebranchu, but in the novel, La Grivotte had a fatal relapse of tuberculosis on the train ride home (for the record, Lebranchu and Lemarchand remained in perfect health for the rest of their lives and died long after their curing. Not that Zola cared). This led him to write the ''Four Gospels'', a tetralogy intending to illustrate the principles of human life: ''Fecundity'' (1899), ''Toil'' (1901), ''Truth'' (1903), and ''Justice'' (Zola did not live to complete it).

Before achieving success as a writer, Zola worked for minimal pay as a clerk in a shipping firm, then in the sales department for the publisher Hachette, where he wrote literary and art reviews for newspapers. Among his early works include ''Tales for Ninon'' (1864) and ''Claude's Confession'' (1865), the latter which became a success de scandal thanks to its bedroom scenes.

-->-- '''Émile Zola''', from a letter to Paul Cezanne

Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was a French novelist, playwright, and journalist who is one of the central figures of naturalism, a literary aiming to employ detachment, scientific objectivism, and social commentary with a deterministic philosophical viewpoint. He also vouched for the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus, even penning the open letter headlined ''J'Accuse...!''