A Love Episode - Softcover

Zola, Emile

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1519525907 ISBN 13: 9781519525901

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015

Synopsis

Émile Zola is one of the greatest writers of the 19th century, and one of France’s best known citizens. In his life, Zola was the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and a major figure in the political liberalization of France. Around the end of his life, Zola was instrumental in helping secure the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, a victim of anti-Semitism. The Dreyfus Affair was encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J'Accuse.
More than half of Zola's novels were part of this set of 20 collectively known as Les Rougon-Macquart. Unlike Honore de Balzac, who compiled his works into La Comedie Humaine midway through, Zola mapped out a complete layout of his series. Set in France's Second Empire, the series traces the "environmental" influences of violence, alcohol and prostitution which became more prevalent during the second wave of the Industrial Revolution. The series examines two branches of a family: the respectable Rougons and the disreputable Macquarts for five generations. Zola explained, "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." 

About this title

About the Author:

?mile Zola was a French writer who is recognized as an exemplar of literary naturalism and for his contributions to the development of theatrical naturalism. Zola s best-known literary works include the twenty-volume Les Rougon-Macquart, an epic work that examined the influences of violence, alcohol and prostitution on French society through the experiences of two families, the Rougons and the Macquarts. Other remarkable works by Zola include Contes ? Ninon, Les Myst?res de Marseille, and Th?r?se Raquin.

In addition to his literary contributions, Zola played a key role in the Dreyfus Affair of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. His newspaper article J Accuse accused the highest levels of the French military and government of obstruction of justice and anti-semitism, for which he was convicted of libel in 1898. After a brief period of exile in England, Zola returned to France where he died in 1902. ?mile Zola is buried in the Panth?on alongside other esteemed literary figures Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1519525907
• ISBN 13: 9781519525901
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 222