Emile Zola

Susan Harrow (University of Bristol)

Ed. by Tim Unwin, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: David Elwyn Evans (University of St Andrews), Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Elisabeth Gerwin (University of Lethbridge), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Dates

Born c. 2 Apr 1840
Died c. 29 Sep 1902
Activity c. 1860-c. 1902

Places

Born in France
Active in France

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

Zola's Works

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Manet’s iconic portrait of Emile Zola (1867) depicts the young writer at his desk, an open book in his hand; on the wall above, a small representation of the painter’s groundbreaking

Olympia

gazes down at him. Zola’s inspired and inspiring defence of the leader of the Impressionists against the sclerotic Second-Empire art establishment was decisive in promoting modern art. A proponent of aesthetic innovation from the early 1860s, Zola was to become an enthusiastic interlocutor of Flaubert, Mallarmé, the Goncourt brothers, Turgenev, Whistler and Van Gogh; they admired his incisive character studies, his virtuoso orchestration of colour, voice, and tone, and the ambitious architecture of his literary project. Zola is a major modern European novelist in the naturalist tradition whose…

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3429 words

Citation: Harrow, Susan. "Emile Zola". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4852, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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