Emile Zola was determined to be a writer from an early age. He was the founder and leader of the Naturalist movement in literature, maintaining that the scientific principles of determinism and experimental method could be applied to the novel.
In 1898, due to his involvement in the Dreyfus Affair - the cause of a Jewish French army officer wrongly convicted of treason - Zola fled briefly to England to avoid prosecution for libel. He died at the height of his powers, from asphyxiation due to a clogged chimney. The incident is shrouded in mystery; there are still lingering suspicions that he was, in fact, murdered. On his death, the French nation mourned the loss of a great champion of the individual whose work has had a lasting influence on the development of both the novel and cinema world-wide.
MAJOR WORKS:
Les Rougon-Macquart, 20 volumes, including:
• L'Assommoir (The Drunkard)
• Nana
• Germinal
• La Terre (Earth)
• La Bete Humaine (The Human Beast)
