ZOLA, EMILE EDOUARD

CHARLES ANTOINE (1840-1902), Fr. novelist; s. of Ital. engineer by Fr. woman; publisher’s clerk until his first book, Contes d Hinon, was accepted, 1864. First vol. of Rougon-Macquart series appeared, 1871; Z. conceived idea of family as an artistic as well as pathological unity, and the 20 separate novels in this series are linked by chief characters of family of Rougon-Macquart; rest of life is history of continuous literary labor (which met with fmmense succe ) until his support of Dreyfus led to his flight to London, 1898-99; returned for second trial; accidentally asphyxiated. Z. was a mixture of scientist, realist, social reformer, and poet; the first three aspects are sometimes predominating, as in Lourdes, Rome, Paris, Nana; Lourdes is a patient and painful description of diseases, Hana a monotonous laying bare of social sores, Paris a long study of political conditions; in none of them is there any attraction of romance or beauty; but in the Rougen= Macquart series, despite the study in heredity, there are characters and situations of the highest art; in year o1 roducing La Terre (1888), Z. wrote e Reve, delicate romance with media eva_ background; La joie de vivre is blend of imagination and pathology; into none of his writings, however, has mirth any entrance; pe imistic outlook on socia] conditions.