Émile Zola was the leader of the literary movement known as 'naturalism' and is one of the great figures of the novel. In his monumental Les Rougon-Macquart (1871-93), he explored the social and cultural landscape of the late nineteenth century in ways that scandalized bourgeois society. Zola opened the novel up to a new realm of subjects, including the realities of working-class life, class relations, and questions of gender and sexuality, and his writing embodied a new freedom of expression, with his bold, outspoken voice often inviting controversy. In this Very Short Introduction, Brian Nelson examines Zola's major themes and narrative art. He illuminates the social and political contexts of Zola's work, and provides readings of five individual novels (The Belly of Paris, L'Assommoir, The Ladies' Paradise, Germinal, and Earth). Zola's naturalist theories, which attempted to align literature with science, helped to generate the stereotypical notion that his fiction was somehow nonfictional. Nelson, however, reveals how the most distinctive elements of Zola's writing go far beyond his theoretical naturalism, giving his novels their unique force. Throughout, he sets Zola's work in context, considering his relations with contemporary painters, his role in the Dreyfus Affair, and his eventual murder. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Zola made it his aim to write novels exploring the many compartments and classes of modern French life in the later nineteenth century—and he went on to carry it out, with novels that look at the longings and troubles and everyday lives of people in their specific social milieux. Travelling through the varieties of Zola's styles and settings, realistic and comic and tragic and critical, from shopping to mining to the fertility business, this book is a guide to the different pleasures and modes of thinking to be found in reading Zola today. The last part considers the different kinds of story involved in the final years of Zola's own life. It follows him first to England—to Upper Norwood, in south London, where he was in exile for almost a year in 1898-9, as a result of his intervention in the ongoing Dreyfus affair. Long letters home offer moving insights into Zola's whole way of being, in the intimacy of his daily life and his writing routines, set against the public events of the Dreyfus process that continue to resonate today.
This is a new edition of Germinal, originally published in 1895 by Leonard Smithers for The Lutetian Society, of London, translated by Havelock Ellis. Part of Adeptio's Unforgettable Classic Series, this is not a facsimile reprint. Obvious typographical errors have been carefully corrected and the entire text has been reset and redesigned by Adeptio Editions to enhance readability, while respecting the original edition. Germinal, a bleak but nevertheless fascinatingly realistic and intriguing novel, tells the story of a coal-mining community in mid-nineteenth-century France. The main protagonist is a young man, tienne Lantier, who arrives at the fictional town of Montsou, in northern France, near the Belgium border, looking for a job. He finds work as a miner, having to labor long hours under miserable conditions. Passionate about socialism, and seeing the hopeless lives of his fellow miners-having to put up with reduced wages, harsh working conditions, and hunger-he ends up leading them to a violent strike. Thanks to Leonard Smithers (1861-1907)-a London publisher associated with the Decadent movement-and his Lutetian Society-a secret literary society-translators such as Havelock Ellis were able to provide British readers with translations of some of mile Zola's controversial novels, aiming at expanding the cultural horizons of the few lucky readers who had access to them. Considered by the overwhelming majority of critics as the best translator of Zola's Germinal, Havelock Ellis (1859-1939) was a social activist, a physician and a psychologist, whose best-known works concern sexuality and criminology. In 1890 he published The Criminal, a remarkable work on criminal anthropology. In 1897, he co-authored, with John Addington Symonds, Sexual Inversion, the first medical text in English about homosexuality, another of his masterpieces. In 1898 he wrote Affirmations, which contains essays on Nietzsche, Casanova, Zola, Huysmans, and St. Francis. About the Author: mile- douard-Charles-Antoine Zola (1840-1902) was a journalist, a novelist, a playwright, and a political activist. He was one of the most influential French novelists of the 19th century and the founder of the literary and theatrical school of naturalism. Zola was a major figure in the political liberalization of France. During his youth in the south of France, Zola befriended Paul C zanne, his schoolmate and future renowned Post-Impressionist painter-best known for his incredibly varied painting style that influenced 20th century abstract art. Zola's first book, Contes Ninon (Stories for Ninon), was a collection of short stories dedicated to his imaginary childhood love, Ninon. He published his debut novel in 1865, La Confession de Claude, an autobiographical work that chronicled a man falling in love with a sex worker. The book drew the attention of the public as well as of the police, and it was banned in the social circles, causing Zola to lose his job. Zola went on to write Th r se Raquin (1867), his first major novel, which delves into intrigue, adultery, and murder; and the dark love story Madeleine F rat (1868), his last novel before he started his masterful Rougon-Macquart 20-novel series.
This is a new edition of Piping Hot (Pot-Bouille): A Realistic Novel, originally published in 1887 by Vizetelly & Co., of London, England. Part of Adeptio's Unforgettable Classic Series, this is not a facsimile reprint. Obvious typographical errors have been carefully corrected and the entire text has been reset and redesigned by Adeptio Editions to enhance readability, while respecting the original edition. Piping Hot follows the adventures of a young and ambitious man, Octave Mouret, who moves into a house on Rue de Choiseul, one of the immense "maisons bourgeoises" in Paris, in which several characters of the novel live and interact. In the beginning of the story, Octave Mouret meets Madame H douin, owner and director of a nearby shop, "The Ladies' Paradise," where Mouret is employed as a salesman. Piping Hot is a fascinating story of love and ambition which follows the private lives of a number of individuals who pursue different occupations while living under the same roof. About the Author: mile- douard-Charles-Antoine Zola (1840-1902) was a journalist, a novelist, a playwright, and a political activist. He was one of the most influential French novelists of the 19th century and the founder of the literary and theatrical school of naturalism. Zola was a major figure in the political liberalization of France. During his youth in the south of France, Zola befriended Paul C zanne, his schoolmate and future renowned Post-Impressionist painter-best known for his incredibly varied painting style that influenced 20th century abstract art. Zola's first book, Contes Ninon (Stories for Ninon), was a collection of short stories dedicated to his imaginary childhood love, Ninon. He published his debut novel in 1865, La Confession de Claude, an autobiographical work that chronicled a man falling in love with a sex worker. The book drew the attention of the public as well as of the police, and it was banned in the social circles, causing Zola to lose his job. Zola went on to write Th r se Raquin (1867), his first major novel, which delves into intrigue, adultery, and murder; and the dark love story Madeleine F rat (1868), his last novel before he started his masterful Rougon-Macquart 20-novel series. mile Zola's works include novels, dramas, poetry, and criticism, among which is his famous Les Rougon-Macquart (1871-1893), a cycle of twenty novels which depict various aspects of life and society, such as The Fortune of the Rougons (La Fortune des Rougon) originally published in 1871 and the first novel of the series; The Rush For The Spoil (La Cur e), in 1872; The Conquest of Plassans (La Conqu te de Plassans), in 1874; The Assommoir - The Prelude to Nana (L'Assommoir), in 1877, the seventh novel of the series, about the suffering of the Parisian working-class; Nana (1880), the ninth installment, which deals with prostitution; Piping Hot (Pot-Bouille), in 1882, the tenth novel of the cycle and Zola's most sarcastic satire, which describes daily life in a newly constructed block of flats in late nineteenth-century Paris; The Ladies Paradise (1883), the eleventh novel (original title: Au Bonheur des Dames), which focuses on Octave Mouret, who, in Piping Hot , meets Caroline H douin, the owner of a small silk shop; Germinal (1885), the thirteenth novel in the series, which depicts the mining industry and is considered by some as his masterpiece; and The Soil (La Terre), in 1887-all published by Adeptio Editions.
This is a new edition of The Fortune of the Rougons, originally published in 1886 by Vizetelly & Co., of London, translated without abridgment. Part of Adeptio's Unforgettable Classic Series, this is not a facsimile reprint. Obvious typographical errors have been carefully corrected and the entire text has been reset and redesigned by Adeptio Editions to enhance readability, while respecting the original edition. The Fortune of the Rougons is the initial volume of the Rougon-Macquart series. Though it was by no means M. Zola's first essay in fiction, it was undoubtedly his first great bid for genuine literary fame, and the foundation of what must necessarily be regarded as his life-work. The story, set in the fictitious Proven al town of Plassans, tells the story of Silv re and Miette, two idealistic young supporters of the republican resistance to Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's December 1851 coup d' tat that created the French Second Empire. The idea of writing the "natural and social history of a family under the Second Empire," extending to a score of volumes, was doubtless suggested to M. Zola by Balzac's immortal Comedie Humaine. He was twenty-eight years of age when this idea first occurred to him; he was fifty-three when he at last sent the manuscript of his concluding volume, Dr. Pascal, to the press. He had spent five-and-twenty years in working out his scheme, persevering with it doggedly and stubbornly, whatever rebuffs he might encounter, whatever jeers and whatever insults might be directed against him by the ignorant, the prejudiced, and the hypocritical. Truth was on the march and nothing could stay it; even as, at the present hour, its march, if slow, none the less continues athwart another and a different crisis of the illustrious novelist's career. E. A. V. MERTON, SURREY: August, 1898. About the Author: mile- douard-Charles-Antoine Zola (1840-1902) was a journalist, a novelist, a playwright, and a political activist. He was one of the most influential French novelists of the 19th century and the founder of the literary and theatrical school of naturalism. Zola was a major figure in the political liberalization of France. During his youth in the south of France, Zola befriended Paul C zanne, his schoolmate and future renowned Post-Impressionist painter-best known for his incredibly varied painting style that influenced 20th century abstract art. Zola's first book, Contes Ninon (Stories for Ninon), was a collection of short stories dedicated to his imaginary childhood love, Ninon. He published his debut novel in 1865, La Confession de Claude, an autobiographical work that chronicled a man falling in love with a sex worker. The book drew the attention of the public as well as of the police, and it was banned in the social circles, causing Zola to lose his job. Zola went on to write Th r se Raquin (1867), his first major novel, which delves into intrigue, adultery, and murder; and the dark love story Madeleine F rat (1868), his last novel before he started his masterful Rougon-Macquart 20-novel series.
The Ladies' Paradise, originally Au Bonheur des Dames, is the eleventh novel of the famous Rougon-Macquart (1871-1893) series of twenty novels written by mile Zola. It tells a rags-to-riches story about Denise Baudu, a poor young girl from the provinces, and Octave Mouret, the wealthy owner of the department store where Denise comes to work. The rise of the modern department store in late nineteenth-century Paris, the store as a symbol of capitalism of the modern city, and the bourgeois revolution tell us a fascinating story of love and ambition, while depicting a rich texture of Parisian society. Part of Adeptio's Unforgettable Classic Series, this is not a facsimile reprint. Obvious typographical errors have been carefully corrected and the entire text has been reset and redesigned by Adeptio Editions to enhance readability, while respecting the original edition. About the Author: mile- douard-Charles-Antoine Zola (1840-1902) was a journalist, a novelist, a playwright, and a political activist. He was one of the most influential French novelists of the 19th century and the founder of the literary and theatrical school of naturalism. Zola was a major figure in the political liberalization of France. During his youth in the south of France, Zola befriended Paul C zanne, his schoolmate and future renowned Post-Impressionist painter-best known for his incredibly varied painting style that influenced 20th century abstract art. Zola's first book, Contes Ninon (Stories for Ninon), was a collection of short stories dedicated to his imaginary childhood love, Ninon. He published his debut novel in 1865, La Confession de Claude, an autobiographical work that chronicled a man falling in love with a sex worker. The book drew the attention of the public as well as of the police, and it was banned in the social circles, causing Zola to lose his job. Zola went on to write Th r se Raquin (1867), his first major novel, which delves into intrigue, adultery, and murder; and the dark love story Madeleine F rat (1868), his last novel before he started his masterful Rougon-Macquart 20-novel series. mile Zola's works include novels, dramas, poetry, and criticism, among which is his famous Les Rougon-Macquart (1871-1893), a cycle of twenty novels which depict various aspects of life and society, such as The Fortune of the Rougons (La Fortune des Rougon) originally published in 1871 and the first novel of the series; The Rush For The Spoil (La Cur e), in 1872; The Conquest of Plassans (La Conqu te de Plassans), in 1874; The Assommoir - The Prelude to Nana (L'Assommoir), in 1877, the seventh novel of the series, about the suffering of the Parisian working-class; Nana (1880), the ninth installment, which deals with prostitution; Piping Hot (Pot-Bouille), in 1882, the tenth novel of the cycle and Zola's most sarcastic satire, which describes daily life in a newly constructed block of flats in late nineteenth-century Paris; The Ladies Paradise (1883), the eleventh novel (original title: Au Bonheur des Dames), which focuses on Octave Mouret, who, in Piping Hot , meets Caroline H douin, the owner of a small silk shop; Germinal (1885), the thirteenth novel in the series, which depicts the mining industry and is considered by some as his masterpiece; and The Soil (La Terre), in 1887-all published by Adeptio Editions. Zola's open letter to French president F lix Faure, under the headline J'Accuse... , published on the front page of the newspaper L'Aurore on January 13, 1898, charging various French officials with a "terrible miscarriage of justice," reopened the case of the Jewish army officer, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who had been sentenced to Devil's Island. For that, Zola was himself sentenced to a year in prison but fled to England, returning one year later after Dreyfus' name had been cleared. Dreyfus was eventually reinstated as an officer and publicly decorated with the Legion of Honor.
