Émile Zola, biography of a brave man

Émile Zola is one of the great figures of French literature. If something characterized his life, and even his death, it was controversy. His work, his opinions and his intellectual and political activity gave a lot to talk about in his time. In short, he was a man demonized by some and adored by others, with the same passion on both sides.

One of the striking aspects of Émile Zola’s life is that he never went to university . He became a reference in literature for the 19th and 20th centuries, despite the fact that he did not have a formal higher education. In fact, he failed his high school final exam and, in order not to become a burden on his mother, he decided to withdraw from academic life and start working.

Émile Zola had a difficult life and a vibrant work. He is considered the father of Naturalism, a literary movement strongly influenced by science, which aims to show human beings and societies in all their crudeness. That was, in principle, what earned him the antipathy of the most conservative sectors of his time.

The childhood of Émile Zola

Émile Zola was born in Paris on April 2, 1840.. His father was an engineer of Italian descent, named Francesco Zola, his mother, Émilie Aubert, was an educated and enlightened woman who came from the French bourgeoisie.

Zola was a classmate of Paul Cézanne during the first school years. The two formed a beautiful friendship that lasted for many years.. It is said that both had a great love for literature and that they shared the first readings of the romantic authors of their time, mainly Victor Hugo and Alfred de Musset.

When Émile Zola was only seven years old, his father died . This had a significant impact on the family’s economic situation., who had to move to a town in Paris. His friendship with Cézanne persisted, but Zola suffered great hardships. As we have mentioned previously, he failed to pass the graduation exam on two occasions and, as a consequence, decided to resign from the academic world.

Literary evolution

Zola first had a job in customs, far from everything that interested him. However, In 1842, he obtained a position in the advertising department of the Hachette publishing house, in this job, he felt in his element. It was then that he began to produce his first literary works, although, at first, they went unnoticed.

Émile Zola dedicated more time to his writing than to his work and that is why he was fired from the publishing house. He took it easy and He soon got a job as a chronicler and art critic at the newspaper L’Événement. There, he began a fervent defense of the impressionist movement which, at that time, was not viewed favorably; Zola especially defended Manet.

In 1867 he wrote the novel Teresa Raquin, with which he achieved some notoriety. Perhaps this gave him a new impetus and, subsequently, better defined his style and produced a whole series of works, in which genetic inheritance and social context defined the fate of the characters. His work aroused the enthusiasm of many, but also the aversion of others, especially the Catholic Church.

The Dreyfus Affair

Alfred Dreyfus was a Jew who was wrongly accused of espionage. The case began to be popularly known as the Dreyfus Affair, against which Émile Zola wrote a classic piece called I accuse. It was an open letter to the French president, which was published on the front page of the newspaper L’Aurore. The text opened a strong controversy due to the forcefulness of the arguments.

I accuse was read around the world and, immediately, a defamation process was initiated against Zola and he was sentenced to one year in prison and to pay a large fine. Zola later went into exile in London, while being tried as an absentee prisoner in France. His innocence was proven in 1899 and he was allowed to return to Paris.

He returned to writing again, but death surprised him on September 29, 1902 at his home. Apparently, he had suffocated from an accident in the chimney. However, most believed that he had actually been murdered.. In fact, one of his lawyers had already been the victim of an assassination attempt, shortly before the death of Émile Zola.

It was only in 1906 that Alfred Dreyfus was proven innocent. For his part, Zola was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery, in Paris. He stayed there for six years and then his remains were transferred to the Pantheon, thus paying a belated tribute to the writer.

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