Émile Zola

Biography

Émile Zola (1840–1902) was a French novelist, journalist, and public intellectual, the leading figure of the literary naturalism movement. Born in Paris, he developed a theory of the "experimental novel," applying scientific methodology to fiction. His twenty-volume Rougon-Macquart cycle (1871–1893) traced heredity and environment across five generations of a family during the Second Empire. Major novels in the series include Germinal, Nana, L’Assommoir, and La Bête humaine. Zola’s unflinching depictions of poverty, labor, alcoholism, and social injustice made him both celebrated and controversial. He is also remembered for "J’accuse...!" (1898), his open letter defending Alfred Dreyfus, which helped expose one of France’s greatest miscarriages of justice.