Read Complete Works of Emile Zola Online
Authors: Émile Zola
Complete Works of Emile Zola
The Complete Works of
ÉMILE ZOLA
(1840-1902)
Contents
THE ZOLA CONTROVERSY by G. K. Chesterton
M. ZOLA by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
An Extract from ‘MY LITERARY PASSIONS’ by William Dean Howells
ÉMILE ZOLA by William Dean Howells
BORLASE AND SON by James Joyce
WITH ZOLA IN ENGLAND by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
THE ROUGON-MACQUART FAMILY TREE
INDEX OF CHARACTERS IN THE ROUGON-MACQUART SERIES
INDEX OF LOCATIONS IN THE ROUGON-MACQUART SERIES
© Delphi Classics 2012
Version 1
The Complete Works of
ÉMILE ZOLA
By Delphi Classics, 2012
The Early Novels
Paris in 1840, the time of Zola’s birth
Rue St. Joseph, Paris — Zola’s birthplace
Zola’s birth certificate
Zola with his parents
CLAUDE’S CONFESSION
Translated by John Sterling
In 1840 Émile Zola was born in Paris to François Zola, an Italian engineer, and Émilie Aurélie Aubert, his French wife. The family moved to Aix-en-Provence in the southeast, when Émile was three years old, but four years later Francois died, leaving Zola’s mother to a meagre pension. The family was forced in 1858 to return to Paris, where Zola’s childhood friend Paul Cézanne, destined to become a world famous artist, soon joined him. Zola’s mother had planned a law career for her son, but he failed his Baccalauréat examination and spent increasing time engaged in his writing. It was during this period of uncertainty that Zola started to write in a Romantic style, inspired by the works of Victor Hugo.
His interest in literature was most likely what influenced him in taking a position in the sales department of Hachette, which would become one of the country’s leading publishers. In time, Zola was to write literary and art reviews for newspapers, gaining in confidence in the literary environment he found himself working in. As a political journalist, Zola did not hide his dislike of Napoleon III, who had successfully run for the office of President under the constitution of the French Second Republic, only to misuse this position as a springboard for the coup d’état that made him Emperor.
In 1864 Zola wrote his first novel,
La Confession de Claude,
a semi-autobiographical work that attracted unwanted police attention, leading to Hachette agreeing with Zola that he should leave their employment.
La Confession de Claude
was Zola’s first attempt at what he would later call an ‘Experimental Novel’. It was swiftly banned in the United States and Great Britain and was not translated into English for several decades. It tells the story of the young and idealistic Claude’s relationship with a prostitute living in the same building as him.