Emile Zola

Emile Zola (1840 - 1902) was a famous French novel writer and is believed to be one of the most important representatives of naturalism. His father was Italian and his mother was French.

Unfortunately, he lost his father when he was seven years old and he inherited his temperament which helped him with his writing and defending his views of life. As a young man, he worked in a publishing house where he, later on, became a journalist. After that, he distanced himself from everyone and dedicated his time to writing.

He was famous for causing many discussions about his work because he got accused of being immoral, having a lack of taste and over exaggerating. Also, he was accused because of an inhumane approach in describing his characters.

Emile Zola was famous because of the affection he showed towards the working class. In 1898, he stood out in the Dreyfuss affair with his work J'accuse with which he brought the age of the government upon him. He was sentenced and he ran away to England.

He wrote about the social problems and tried to show his moral through his books. He considered that the society problems should get more attention. From that time, we have his unfinished works like "Les Trois Villes", "Les Quatre Evangiles".

Except for "Germinal" he is also well known for his other novels such as "Nana", "Therese Raquin", "L'Assommoir"…

He died September 29, 1902 in Paris.