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Born in Paris, France, the son of an Italian engineer, Émile Zola spent his childhood in Aix-en-Provence and was educated at the Collège Bourbon. At age 18 he returned to Paris where he studied at the Lycée Saint-Louis. After working at several low-level clerical jobs, he began to write a literary column for a newspaper. Controversial from the beginning, he did not hide his disdain for Napoleon III, who used the Second Republic as a vehicle to become Emperor.
More than half of Zola's novels were part of a set of 20 collectively known as Les Rougon-Macquart. Set in France's Second Empire, it traces the hereditary influence of violence, alcoholism, and prostitution in two branches of a family, the respectable Rougons and the disreputable 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."
Zola and the painter Paul Cezanne were friends from childhood and in youth, but broke in later life over Zola's fictionalized depiction of Cezanne and the bohemian life of painters in the his novel L'Oeuvre (The Masterpiece, 18861886 is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) Events January 18 Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. January 29 Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile. March).
He risked his career and even his life on January 13January 13 is the 13th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. It is still celebrated as New Year's Eve by those on the Julian calendar. There are 352 days remaining (353 in a leap year). Events 888 Odo, Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks. 1847, 1898Events January 1 New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island. January 13 Emile Zola's J'accus, when his "J'accuse" was published on the front page of the Paris daily, L'Aurore . The paper was run by Ernest Vaughan and Georges ClemenceauGeorges Clemenceau ( September 28, 1841 November 24, 1929) was a French doctor, journalist and statesman. Clemenceau was born in Mouilleron-en-Pareds, in the departement of Vendee, in France. In his early years in Paris, he was a political activist, publi, 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. They can either be a letter to an individual, that is also sent to newspapers and other media. In general the purpose of this form of letter is communicating with the wide audience to the President, Félix FaureFelix Faure ( January 30, 1841 February 16, 1899) was President of France from 1895 to his death in 1899. He was born in Paris on the 30th of January 1841, being the son of a small furniture maker. Having started as a tanner and merchant at Havre, he acqu. J'accuse accused the French government of anti-Semitism and of wrongfully placing Alfred Dreyfus in jail. Zola was brought to trial for libel for publishing J'Accuse on February 7, 1898 and was convicted on February 23. Zola declared that the conviction and transportation to Devil's Island of the Jewish army captain Alfred Dreyfus came after a false accusation of espionage and was a miscarriage of justice. The case, known as the Dreyfus affair, had divided France deeply between the reactionary army and church and the more liberal commercial society. The ramifications continued for years, so much so that on the 100th anniversary of Émile Zola's article, France's Roman Catholic daily paper, "La Croix", apologized for its anti-Semitic editorials during the Dreyfus affair.
Zola was a leading light of France and his letter formed a major turning-point in the Dreyfus affair, causing the captain's case to be reopened, whereupon he was acquitted. In the course of events, Zola was convicted of libel, sentenced, and removed from the Legion of Honor. Rather than go to jail, he fled to England. Soon he was allowed to return in time to see the government fall. Dreyfus was convicted again, but was ultimately freed, in large part due to the moral force of Zola's arguments. Zola said "The truth is on the march, and nothing shall stop it." In 1906, Dreyfus was completely exonerated by the Supreme Court.
Zola died in Paris on September 29, 1902 of carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a stopped chimney. His enemies were blamed, but nothing was proved. He was initially buried in the Cimetière de Montmartre in Paris, but on June 4, 1908, almost six years after his death, his remains were moved to the Panthéon.