Emile Zola wrote the following in the preface of his first installment to the Rougon-Macquart series: «The characteristic of the Rougon-Macquart family, the group which I propose to study, is their unbridled passions, that great revolutionizing element of our age, inciting to excessive self-indulgence. Physiologically speaking, these appetites are the gradual outcome of certain nervous and sanguineous modifications which manifest themselves in a race of beings, as a consequence of some previous...
Émile Zola (1840-1902) was one of France's greatest novelists of the nineteenth century, being most famous as a writer for Nana (the story of a courtesan), and in the political world for his role in exposing the frame-up of Captain Dreyfus. However, he had limited success as a dramatist until he partnered with William Busnach, an Algerian Jew. This adaptation of the Zola novel of the same name is a powerful exposé of life among the working poor, and the ravaging effects of alcholism on...
The tenth novel in the Rougon-Macquart series by Émile Zola, «Pot Luck (Pot-Bouille)» was first published in serially format in the periodical «Le Gaulois» between January and April 1882. The title of the work, Pot-Bouille, is a 19th-century French slang term for a large cooking pot used for preparing stews. It is a term that really has not direct translation in English. The title of the novel which recounts the activities of the residents of a block of flats in the Rue de Choiseul over the...
The fourteenth novel in a twenty book series collectively entitled, «Les Rougon-Macquart, L'Œuvre» was first translated into English in 1886, the title having since been rendered «The Masterpiece». Set in France's Second Empire, the story of naturalist painter Claude Lantier is believed to be a highly fictionalized account of Zola's friendship with the painter Paul Cézanne. The fictional artist of Zola's Bohemian world, Lantier, strives to complete a great work that will...
The first major work of the father of French Naturalism, “Thérèse Raquin” is the shocking and scandalous initial big success in Emile Zola’s impressive writing career. Zola’s third novel was published serially in 1867 and then as a book in 1868. The story revolves around a young woman, Thérèse, who is unhappily married to her first cousin Camille, largely due to her domineering, if well-intentioned, aunt and Camille’s mother, Madame Raquin. Camille, selfish and spoiled by his mother, decides to...
Widely acknowledged as one of Emile Zola's masterpieces, «L'Assommoir» is a novel immersed in the harsh poverty and relief-giving alcoholism of working-class Paris in the nineteenth century. At the heart of Zola's shockingly realistic descriptions is Gervaise, a mother abandoned by her lover who must learn to survive alone on what she can earn. When she marries the abstemious roof-worker Coupeau and manages to open her own laundry, life is for a while successful and happy....
One of the most important, though controversial, French novelists of the late nineteenth century, and founder of the Realist movement, was Émile Zola (1840-1902). He was the most important example of the literary genre of naturalism, and an integral part of developing theatrical naturalism. «The Kill» is the second book in Zola's «Les Rougon-Macquart», a twenty-volume series about a fictional family during the Second French Empire. The Kill, a second translation of «La Curée», undertaken by...
Originally titled «Contes à Ninon» (1864) and «Nouveaux Contes à Ninon» (1874). Table of Contents: Stories For Ninon: To Ninon Simplice, The Ball-Program, She Who Loves Me, The Love-Fairy, Blood, The Thieves And The Ass, Sister-Of-The-Poor, The Adventures Of Big Sidoine And Little Médéric, New Stories For Ninon: To Ninon, A Bath, The Strawberries, Big Michu, The Fast, The Shoulders Of The Marchioness, My Neighbour Jacques, The Paradise Of Cats Lili, The Legend Of Cupid's Little Blue...
Zola's horrific short story depicts a man, Olivier Becaille, in a temporary coma and paralytic state. This condition leads his wife to believe he is dead. It even fools the doctor. Funeral and burial arrangements are made and carried out. Readers' will experience their worst fear through the eyes of Olivier Becaille. Émile Zola (1840 – 1902), French novelist, critic, and political activist who was the most prominent French novelist of the late 19th century. He was noted for his...
Les Rougon-Macquart is the collective title given to a cycle of twenty novels by French writer Émile Zola. Subtitled «Natural and social history of a family under the Second Empire», it follows the life of one family during the Second French Empire (1852–1870). In this tremendous work Zola first and foremost examines the impact of social environment on men and women, by varying the social, economic, political and professional milieu in which each novel takes place. It provides us with a close...
La Confession de Claude (Claude's Confession) was Emile Zola's first novel and his first attempt at what he would later call an «Experimental Novel». Published in Paris in 1865, it was quickly banned in the United States and Great Britain and was not translated into English for several decades. The Dead Woman's Wish The Dead Woman's Wish was first published in 1902. It tells the story of a young orphan Daniel, sponsored by Madame de Rionne who is on her death bed. The Mystery...
Naïs Micoulin (1884) was one of Zola's short stories about the trials of a factory worker in what was then the village of L'Estaque and is now administratively part of Marseille. Naïs, the wild child, has grown up into a sensual young lady. Stirred to the depths of his soul, Frederick contemplates his servant and soon, they indulge in caresses. Until Naïs' father swears to kill the man who dared to touch his daughter. Émile Zola (1840 – 1902) was an influential French novelist,...