Émile François Zola (2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was an influential
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
, the most important exemplar of the literary school of
naturalismNaturalism is a literary movement that seeks to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment. Naturalism is the outgrowth of Realism, a prominent literary...
, an important contributor to the development of
theatrical naturalismNaturalism is a movement in European drama and theatre that developed in the late 1st and early 20th centuries. It refers to theatre that attempts to create a perfect illusion of reality through a range of dramatic and theatrical strategies: detailed, three-dimensional settings Naturalism is a...
, and a major figure in the political liberalisation of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer
Alfred DreyfusAlfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history...
which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline
J'AccuseJ'accuse was an open letter published on January 13, 1898, in the newspaper L'Aurore by the influential writer Émile Zola.The letter was addressed to President of France Félix Faure, and accused the government of anti-Semitism and the unlawful jailing of Alfred Dreyfus, a French General Staff...
.
Biography
Émile Zola was born in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1840. His father, François Zola (originally Francesco Zolla), was the son of an Italian engineer. With his French wife, Émilie Aurélie Aubert, the family moved to
Aix-en-ProvenceAix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city in southern France, some north of Marseille...
, in the southeast, when he was three years old. Four years later, in 1847, his father died, leaving his mother on a meagre pension. In 1858, the Zolas moved to Paris, where Émile's childhood friend the painter
Paul CézannePaul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century...
soon joined him. Zola started to write in the
romanticRomanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution...
style. His widowed mother had planned a law career for Emile, but he failed his
BaccalauréatThe baccalauréat , often known in France colloquially as le bac, is an academic qualification which French and international students take at the end of the lycée . It was invented under Napoleon I in 1808...
examination.
Before his breakthrough as a writer, Zola worked as a clerk in a shipping firm, and then in the sales department for a publisher (
HachetteLouis Christophe François Hachette was a French publisher.He was born at Rethel in the Ardennes département of France. After studying three years at prestigious École Normale Supérieure with the view of becoming a teacher, he was in 1822 on political grounds expelled from the seminary...
). He also wrote literary and art reviews for newspapers. As a political journalist, Zola did not hide his dislike of Napoleon III, who had successfully run for the office of President under the constitution of the
French Second Republic{|align=right|The French Second Republic was the republican government of France between the 1848 Revolution and the coup by
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte which initiated the Second Empire. It officially adopted the motto
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité...
, only to misuse this position as a springboard for the
coup d'étatA coup d'état , or coup for short, is the sudden unconstitutional deposition of a legitimate government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another, either civil or military...
that
made him emperorThe French coup d'état on December 2nd, 1851, staged by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte , ended in the successful dissolution of the French National Assembly, as well as the subsequent reestablishment of the French Empire the next year...
.
Career
During his early years, Émile Zola wrote several short stories and essays, four plays and three novels. Among his early books was
Contes à Ninon, published in 1864. With the publication of his sordid autobiographical novel
La Confession de Claude (1865) attracting police attention, Hachette fired him. His novel
Les Mystères de Marseille appeared as a serialized story in 1867.
After his first major novel,
Thérèse RaquinThérèse Raquin is the title of a novel and a play by the French writer Émile Zola. The novel was originally published in serial format in the journal L'Artiste and in book format in December of the same year.-Plot introduction:Thérèse Raquin tells the story of a young woman, unhappily married to...
(1867), Zola started the long series called Les Rougon Macquart, about a family under the
Second EmpireThe Second French Empire or Second Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.-Rule of Napoleon III:...
.
Literary output
More than half of Zola's novels were part of this set of 20 collectively known as
Les Rougon-MacquartLes Rougon-Macquart is the collective title given to French novelist Émile Zola's twenty-novel cycle. Subtitled Histoire naturelle et sociale d'une famille sous le Second Empire , it follows the life of a fictional family living during the Second French Empire and is an example of French...
. Unlike
BalzacHonoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815.Due to his keen observation of detail...
who in the midst of his literary career resynthesized his work into
La Comédie HumaineLa Comédie humaine is the title of Honoré de Balzac's multi-volume collection of interlinked novels and stories depicting French society in the period of the Restoration and the July Monarchy .-Overview:...
, Zola from the outset at the age of 28 had thought of the complete layout of the series. Set in France's Second Empire, the series traces the "environmental" influences of violence,
alcoholIn chemistry, an alcohol is any organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom of an alkyl or substituted alkyl group. An important group of acohols is formed by the simple acyclic alcohols, the general formula for which is C
nH
2n+1OH...
, and
prostitutionProstitution is the act or practice of engaging in sex acts for hire. In most cultures, prostitution is viewed by many as a deviant profession, either illegal or socially discouraged...
which became more prevalent during the second wave of the industrial revolution. The series examines two branches of a single family: the respectable (that is, legitimate) Rougons and the disreputable (illegitimate) Macquarts, for five generations.
As he described his plans for the series, "I want to portray, at the outset of a century of liberty and truth, a family that cannot restrain itself in its rush to possess all the good things that progress is making available and is derailed by its own momentum, the fatal convulsions that accompany the birth of a new world."
Although Zola and Cézanne were friends from childhood and in youth, they broke in later life over Zola's fictionalized depiction of Cézanne and the
BohemianBohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits, with few permanent ties...
life of painters in his novel
L'ŒuvreL'œuvre is the fourteenth novel in the Rougon-Macquart series by Émile Zola. It was first serialized in the periodical Gil Blas beginning in December 1885 before being published in novel form by Charpentier in 1886....
(
The Masterpiece, 1886).
From 1877 onwards with the publication of
l'AssommoirL'Assommoir is the seventh novel in Émile Zola's twenty-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart. Usually considered one of Zola's masterpieces, the novel—a harsh and uncompromising study of alcoholism and poverty in the working-class districts of Paris—was a huge commercial success and established...
, Émile Zola became wealthy–he was better paid than
Victor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
, for example. He became a figurehead among the literary bourgeoisie and organized cultural dinners with
Guy de MaupassantHenri René Albert Guy de Maupassant was a popular 19th-century French writer and considered one of the fathers of the modern short story....
,
Joris-Karl HuysmansCharles-Marie-Georges Huysmans was a French novelist who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans; he is most famous for the novel À rebours...
and other writers at his luxurious villa in Medan near Paris after 1880.
Germinal in 1885, then the three 'cities',
Lourdes in 1894,
Rome in 1896 and
Paris in 1897, established Zola as a successful author.
The self-proclaimed leader of French naturalism, Zola's works inspired operas such as those of
Gustave CharpentierGustave Charpentier was a French composer, best known for his opera Louise.He was born in Dieuze, the son of a baker, and after studying at the conservatoire in Lille entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1881. There he studied compositions under Jules Massenet and in 1887 won the Prix de Rome for...
, notably
LouiseLouise is an opera in four acts by Gustave Charpentier to an original French libretto by the composer, with some contributions by Saint-Pol-Roux, a symbolist poet and inspiration of the surrealists....
in the 1890s. His works, inspired by the concepts of
heredityHeredity is the passing of traits to offspring . This is the process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes predisposed to the characteristics of its parent cell or organism. Through heredity, variations exhibited by individuals can accumulate and cause a species to evolve...
(
Claude BernardClaude Bernard was a French physiologist. Historian of science I. Bernard Cohen of Harvard University called Bernard "one of the greatest of all men of science"...
), social
manichaeismManichaeism was one of the major Iranian Gnostic religions, originating in Sassanid Persia. Although most of the original writings of the founding prophet Mani have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived...
and idealistic
socialismSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
, resonate with those of
NadarFélix Nadar was the pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon , a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist and balloonist. Some photographs by Nadar are marked "P. Nadar" for "Photographie Nadar" .-Life: born in April 1820 in Paris...
,
ManetÉdouard Manet , 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883, was a French painter. One of the first nineteenth century artists to approach modern-life subjects, he was a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism....
and subsequently
FlaubertGustave Flaubert was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary , and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style...
.
Activism on behalf of Captain Dreyfus
Émile Zola risked his career and even his life on 13 January 1898, when his "
J'accuseJ'accuse was an open letter published on January 13, 1898, in the newspaper L'Aurore by the influential writer Émile Zola.The letter was addressed to President of France Félix Faure, and accused the government of anti-Semitism and the unlawful jailing of Alfred Dreyfus, a French General Staff...
", was published on the front page of the Paris daily,
L'AuroreL’Aurore was a literary, liberal, and socialist newspaper published in Paris, France, from 1897 to 1914. Its most famous headline was Émile Zola’s “J'Accuse”, concerning the Dreyfus Affair. It was published by eventual Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau.- External links:* Digitized issues of...
. The newspaper was run by Ernest Vaughan and
Georges ClemenceauGeorges Benjamin Clemenceau was a French statesman, physician, and journalist. He served as the prime minister of France from 1906-1909 and 1917-1920. For nearly the final year of World War I he led France, and was one of the major voices behind the Treaty of Versailles...
, who decided that the controversial story would be in the form of an
open letterAn open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....
to the President,
Félix FaureFélix François Faure was President of France from 1895 until his death.-Biography:Félix François Faure was born in Paris, the son of a small furniture maker...
. Émile Zola's "
J'accuse" accused the highest levels of the French Army of obstruction of justice and antisemitism by having wrongfully convicted a
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish artillery captain,
Alfred DreyfusAlfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history...
, to life imprisonment on
Devil's IslandDevil's Island is the smallest and northernmost island of the three Îles du Salut located about off the coast of French Guiana. It has an area of 14 ha . It was a small part of the notorious French penal colony in French Guiana until 1952.-Use as penal colony:The rocky, palm-covered island...
in
French GuianaFrench Guiana is an overseas department of France, located on the northern coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil and Suriname. Like the other DOMs, French Guiana is also an overseas region of France, one of the 26 regions of France. Its currency is the euro...
. Zola declared that Dreyfus' conviction and removal to an island prison came after a false accusation of espionage and was a miscarriage of justice. The case, known as the
Dreyfus affairThe Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November, 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...
, divided France deeply between the reactionary army and church, and the more liberal commercial society.
The ramifications continued for many years; on the 100th anniversary of Zola's article, France's Roman Catholic daily paper,
La CroixLa Croix is a French, Roman Catholic, daily newspaper. It is published in Paris and distributed throughout the country, with a circulation of just under 100,000. It is neither explicitly liberal or conservative on major political issues, but follows the Church's position although it is in general...
, apologized for its antisemitic editorials during the Dreyfus Affair. As Zola was a leading French thinker, his letter formed a major turning-point in the affair.
Zola was brought to trial for criminal libel on 7 February 1898, and was convicted on 23 February, sentenced, and removed from the
Legion of HonorThe Légion d'honneur or Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
. Rather than go to jail, Zola fled to
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Without even having had the time to pack a few clothes, he arrived at Victoria Station on 19 July. After his brief and unhappy residence in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, from October 1898 to June 1899, he was allowed to return in time to see the government fall.
The government offered Dreyfus a pardon (rather than exoneration), which he could accept and go free and so effectively admit that he was guilty, or face a re-trial in which he was sure to be convicted again. Although he was clearly not guilty, he chose to accept the pardon. Zola said, "The truth is on the march, and nothing shall stop it." In 1906, Dreyfus was completely exonerated by the Supreme Court.
The 1898 article by Émile Zola is widely marked in France as the most prominent manifestation of the new power of the intellectuals (writers, artists, academicians) in shaping
public opinionPublic opinion is the aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population. Public opinion can also be defined as the complex collection of opinions of many different people and the sum of all their views...
, the media and the State.
Death
Zola died of
carbon monoxide poisoningCarbon monoxide poisoning occurs after enough inhalation of carbon monoxide . Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas, but, being colorless, odorless, tasteless, and non-irritating, it is very difficult for people to detect...
caused by a stopped chimney. He was 62 years old. His enemies were blamed because of previous attempts on his life, but nothing could be proven. (Decades later, a Parisian roofer claimed on his deathbed to have closed the chimney for political reasons). Zola was initially buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, but on 4 June 1908, almost six years after his death, his remains were moved to the
PanthéonThe Panthéon is a building in the Latin Quarter in Paris, France. It was originally built as a church dedicated to St. Genevieve, but after many changes now combines liturgical functions with its role as a famous burial place...
, where he shares a crypt with
Victor HugoVictor-Marie Hugo was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
and Alexandre Dumas.
The biographical film
The Life of Émile ZolaThe Life of Emile Zola is a 1937 biographical film of famous French author Émile Zola. It depicts his friendship with noted painter Paul Cézanne, and his rise to fame through his prolific writing, with particular focus on his involvement in the Dreyfus affair...
won the
Academy AwardThe Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are presented annually by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. The formal ceremony at which the awards are presented is...
for Best Picture in 1937. The film focuses mainly on Zola's involvement in the Dreyfus Affair.
In January 1998, President
Jacques ChiracJacques René Chirac served as the President of France from 17 May 1995 until 16 May 2007. As President he also served as an ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra and Grand Master of the French Légion d'honneur. Chirac was the second-longest serving President of France , behind François Mitterrand...
held a memorial to honor the centenary of
J'accuse.
Quotations
- "And let us never forget the courage of a great writer who, taking every risk, putting his tranquility, his fame, even his life in peril, dared to pick up his pen and place his talent in the service of truth." — Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac served as the President of France from 17 May 1995 until 16 May 2007. As President he also served as an ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra and Grand Master of the French Légion d'honneur. Chirac was the second-longest serving President of France , behind François Mitterrand...
- "The artist is nothing without gift, but the gift is nothing without work." – Émile Zola
- "If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, I will answer you: I am here to live out loud." – Émile Zola
- "Zola descends into the sewer to bathe in it, I to cleanse it." — Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Johan Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as the "father of modern drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre. His plays were considered scandalous to many of his era, when Victorian values of family...
- "Civilization will not attain perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest." — Émile Zola
- "...but I affirm, with intense conviction, the Truth is on the march and nothing will stop it." — Émile Zola
- "The action I am taking is no more than a radical measure to hasten the explosion of truth and justice. I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul. Let them dare, then, to bring me before a court of law and let the enquiry take place in broad daylight!"—Émile Zola, "J'accuse!" (1898)
External links