Zola: a life

Among the short list of authors whose lives were as exciting as their books, Emile Zola is one of the most eminent. Bestselling author of a series of novels, close companion of C& eacute;zanne and Manet, critic of politicians, clergy, bankers, and businessmen, he acted with a courage that earned him enduring fame when he took on the most venerable of all institutions: the military. But, climactic as it was, the Dreyfus Affair was only the most famous of events in Zola's tumultuous life. In this detailed biography, Frederick Brown discloses Zola's development as an author, and the moral consciousness that led him to invest himself in one social and political problem after another. Brown also shows Zola's human side--his failings, his superstitions, his private joys and dilemmas. At a time when a career could be made by a well-timed review or be broken by a rebuttal, Zola carved out his place in the literary pantheon through a series of struggles against ever more powerful enemies.