Profile
Émile Zola: The Novelist Who Spoke Truth to Power
French novelist and campaigner, born in Paris on 2 April 1840
Émile Zola was born in Paris on 2 April 1840 and grew up in Aix-en-Provence, where he became friends with the future painter Paul Cézanne. After his father's early death, the family struggled financially.
He worked for a publisher before writing full-time, becoming the leading voice of naturalism. His Rougon-Macquart novels include L'Assommoir, about the dangers of drink, Germinal, about striking miners, and Nana.
In 1898 he published an open letter in a newspaper accusing the army of covering up the truth in the Dreyfus affair. Convicted of libel, he fled to England for a year. He died in 1902, and his remains were later moved to the Panthéon.
Career highlights
- 1840Born in Paris: grows up in Aix-en-Provence
- 1867Thérèse Raquin: his first major novel
- 1871Rougon-Macquart begins: a twenty-novel family saga
- 1877L'Assommoir: a huge success
- 1885Germinal: his novel about coal miners
- 1898Dreyfus affair: publishes his famous open letter
- 1898Exile in England: flees after a libel conviction
- 1902Dies in Paris: from carbon monoxide poisoning
- 1908Panthéon: his remains are moved there
Did you know?His childhood friendship with Paul Cézanne lasted decades, though it cooled after Zola published a novel about a failed painter.
