The Beast Within - Emile Zola [2]
1877 L’Assommoir is published in book form. The novel is a bestseller (thirty-eight impressions in one year) and establishes Zola’s reputation as a novelist. After years of hardship, Zola becomes a rich man. Paintings of the Gare Saint-Lazare by Monet.
1878 Zola buys a house at Médan, thirty miles outside Paris. He uses the house as a retreat for his writing. (June) Publication of Une page d’amour, a gentler story of domestic life. 1879 Publication in serial form of Nana, the story of a high-class prostitute.
1880 (8 May) Death of Zola’s literary mentor, Gustave Flaubert. (October) Death of Zola’s mother. Zola experiences depression and suspends work on the Rougon-Macquart novels. (December) Outlines the theory of Naturalism in Le Roman expérimental.
1882 Publication of Pot-Bouille.
1883 (March) Publication of Au Bonheur desDames, a novel describing the life and intrigues of a large Paris department store.
1884 (March) Publication of La Joie de vivre.
1885 (March) Publication of Germinal, a novel set in a mining community in the north of France. The novel describes the dangers and hardships experienced by the miners and their revolt against their employers. The revolt is led by Étienne Lantier. Publication of French translation of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment.
1886 (April) Publication of L‘CEuvre, a novel describing the fortunes of Claude Lantier, a painter obsessed with radical new theories about art. The novel draws upon Zola’s close friendship with Cézanne. Cézanne, however, objects to the novel and ends their friendship. (Also April) The Prefect of the Département de l’Eure is murdered on a train travelling between Cherbourg and Paris. Publication of Gabriel Tarde’s La Criminalité comparée.
1887 (November) Publication of La Terre, a frank portrayal of peasant life. Five young writers, claiming to be ‘disciples’ of Zola, sign a manifesto in Le Figaro against the novel. Publication of the French translation of Lombroso’s L ’Uomo delinquente.
1888 (April) ‘Jack the Ripper’ commits the first of a series of murders in the East End of London. (October) Publication of Le Rêve. Jeanne Rozerot becomes Zola’s mistress. Publication in France of Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov.
1889 (5 May) Begins writing La Bête humaine at Médan. (20 September) Birth of Denise, daughter of Zola and Jeanne Rozerot. (14 November) The first three chapters of La Bête humaine appear in La Vie populaire. International exhibition in Paris (‘Exposition Universelle’).
1890 (March) The final chapters of La Bête humaine appear in La Vie populaire, and the novel is published in book form by Charpentier.
1891 (March) Publication of L’Argent. (25 September) Birth of Jacques, son of Zola and Jeanne.
1892 (June) Publication of La Débâcle, an account of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian war.
1893 (July) Publication of Le Docteur Pascal, the final novel in the Rougon-Macquart series. Zola visits London as the guest of the Institute of Journalists and attends a banquet in his honour at the Crystal Palace.
1894 Zola begins a trilogy of novels called Les Trois Villes about a priest who turns away from Catholicism in search of a more humanitarian creed. The trilogy comprises Lourdes (1894), Rome (1896) and Paris (1898). In December a Jewish officer in the French army, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, is convicted by court martial of spying and sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony on Devil’s Island.
1897New evidence suggests that Dreyfus has been wrongly convicted. Zola publishes three articles in Le Figaro demanding a retrial.
1898 (13 January) Zola’s article ‘J’accuse‘, written in support of Dreyfus and addressed to Félix Faure, President of the Republic, is published in L’Aurore. (21 February) Zola is found guilty of libelling the Minister of War and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment and a fine of 3,000francs. Zola appeals against this sentence but on 18 July, before the appeal is heard, he leaves France for London, where he spends a year in exile.
1899 (4 June) Returns to France.