Emile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola

1840 – He was born Paris on the 2nd of April and spent his childhood in Aix-en-Provence, southeast France, where the family moved in 1843.

1864 – He wrote several short stories and essays, 4 plays and 3 novels. Among his early books was “CONTES Á NINON”, which was published this year.

1865 – His sordid autobiographical novel LA CONFESSION DE CLAUDE was published and attracted the attention of the police, Zola was fired from Hachette.

1867 – After his first major novel “THÉRÈSE RAQUIN”, he started the long series called Les Rougon Macquart, the natural and social history of a family under the Second Empire.

1877 - The appearance of L'ASSOMMOIR (Drunkard), a depiction of alcoholism, made him the best-known writer in France.

1885 – He published one of his finest works, GERMINAL. It was the first major work on a strike, based on his research notes on labor conditions in the coal mines.

1902 – He died on the 28th of September, under mysterious circumstances, overcome by carbon monoxide fumes in his sleep.

1908 – His remains were transported to the Panthéon. Naturalism as a literary movement fell out of favor after Zola's death, but his integrity had a profound influence on such writers as Theodore Dreiser.