ZOLA, ztVla', EMILE (18401902). A French t qturali tic novelist, born in Paris, April 2, 1S40. father Was a Yetaiinn with Greek blood in hi.. veins. Zola studied at the Lyeile Saint-Louis, but after twice failing to get his bachelor's degree, he found work in 1802 in the publishing house of 'Hachette in Paris, and at the same time began to write for the newspapers. He had al ready written a number of novels and tales, his first hook being the Coutes a Ninon (1864), when in 1869 he undertook to relate in a series of connected volumes what he called the "Physiolog ical history of a family under the Second Em pire." To this family he gave the name of "Rougon-Macquart." The first novel of the series, La fortune des Rougon, was not published until 1871, after the fall of the Empire. Other novels of the series, La cure (1870), Le centre (le Paris (1573). La rongeHe de Plassans (18741, 1,a fautr de Mon-et (1875). and .500 Excalenec Eugene Runyon (1876). succeeded each other until 1870 without arousing much at tention. Rut the seventh novel of the series. L'assommoir (18781, achieved instantaneous success. It was a powerful picture of life among the working class of Paris and of the havoc cre ated therein by alcoholism.
The pictures presented by Zola were realistic beyond anything that had heen known hitherto in French literature. The ugly side of life was presented with a descriptive fullness and a bold ness- of vocabulary from which French masters of realism had always shrunk. Zola, of course, was attacked as well as praised. In defending himself he claimed to have ushered in a new literary school, which he called 'naturalistic.' His novels were described by him and the fol lowers whom he soon gathered about him as 'documents' intended to give to the a com plete picture of French contemporary society. The success of iJa.NS0171 010i r was repeated in 1580 by Nana, and later by several other novel; of the series, notably by Germinal (1885). The whole series consisted of 20 volumes, the last two of which. La dadrle, dealing with the unreadiness of France for the Franco-German and Le Docteur Pascal, were published in 1892 and 1893.
This series contains Zola's most remarkable productions. It is very uneven; it must be ad mitted that some of the volumes, Pot-Bo/Wit (18821, for instance, which claims to be a pit tore of the life of the middle class, present hardly anything that is not nauseating and at the same time tedious in the highest degree. Others, Germinal, La tern- (18871. Lo hete humaine ( 1890), L'argrn t (18911. La d'iniele (1892), are works of great power. It need hardly he said that not one of these is free from the fea tures that are known as objectionable. In fact, passages which seem to be quite unnecessary to the development of the story would indicate that Zola took pleasure in introducing into his hooks, thanks to his literary skill, descriptions which no other writer would have dared attempt. While presenting to the public the productions of hi; creative imagination. Zola eonsidered it his duty also to develop his literary theories and to at tack those of his opponents; this was done in a number of volumes of literary criticism. the most important of which were Lc' roman (1SSO) and Les roma/triers naturalistes (18811, so that it is not very diffieult, through a com parison of his theoretical utterances with his practical performances, to see whether Zola achieved exactly what he elaimed to do. The enemy against which he loved to direct his sharp est attack romanticism; the intellectual faculty which lie seems most to descant against is imagination; and yet any one who takes the trouble to analyze the literary elements of his style of \\Tiling, and carefully to examine the events that succeed each other in the development of his plots, is almost inevitably led to the con clusion that Zola never entirely shook off the influence of the romantic sellout, and especially of its great master, Victor Hugo. lie was him self carried away by his creative imagination more often than lie kept it under control.