Émile Zola

Although born in Paris, Émile Zola spent his childhood in Aix-en-Provence. When Zola was seven, his father died, and Zola and his mother moved back to Paris. Zola’s mother raised him to pursue law, but Zola flunked his exam twice and worked instead as a clerk at a shipping firm. In 1865, Zola started an affair with a seamstress named Alexandrine, whom he later married in 1870. Although they had no children, they cared for Zola’s mother, who lived with them. In 1888, Zola started another affair with another seamstress named Jeanne with whom Zola had two children. Zola visited his two children in secret until Alexandrine discovered their existence and—after nearly divorcing Zola—decided to allow him to support them. Zola’s first novel—an autobiography that alerted the police to the corruption in the shipping industry—got him fired from his company. After that, he published many serial novels and criticisms in local newspapers. After his novel Therese Raquin acquired him some publicity, he started on his major life’s work: the twenty-volume novel series Les Rougon-Macquart, of which The Ladies’ Paradise is the 11th volume. After the seventh volume of the series was published in 1877, Zola secured a publishing contract and became wealthy, earning more than many other prominent writers of his time. As well as being a major literary influence, Zola was also active politically. In 1898, he published an open letter called J’Accuse…! (I accuse…!), in which he accused prominent members of the French army of wrongfully convicting Alfred Dreyfus—a French soldier—on antisemitic grounds. Although Zola’s outspokenness led to a year’s exile in the United Kingdom, Dreyfus was ultimately acquitted, an event which proved the power of writers to shape public opinion. In 1902, Zola died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a blocked chimney. Some of the thousands of people who attended his funeral believed that Zola had been murdered by his enemies in the Dreyfus trial (who had made previous attempts to kill him), but no evidence was ever found.