FOUR SHORT STORIES

Émile Zola, a prominent 19th-century writer and French icon, was a key figure in the naturalist literary movement and contributed to France’s political liberalization. He played a pivotal role in the exoneration of Alfred Dreyfus during the Dreyfus Affair, symbolized by “J’Accuse.”

Zola’s most notable work is the series of 20 novels called Les Rougon-Macquart, set during France’s Second Empire. It explores the impact of violence, alcohol, and prostitution in the Industrial Revolution’s second wave across five generations of two branches of a family—the respectable Rougons and the disreputable Macquarts. Zola aimed to depict the unbridled pursuit of progress and its consequences in an era of newfound freedom and truth.