Status Updates From Émile Zola: A Biography

Given the highly suspicious and unusual nature of the situation, as well as the great number of death threats Zola had continued to receive, one wonders why the experts delayed their investigation until ten full days after the catastrophe. Out of respect for the vigil? Or was there some other reason?

Schom, Alan. Émile Zola: A Biography . Sharpe Books. Kindle Edition.

Just as the Dreyfus Affair was a watershed in the history of modem France, so too was it in the life of Zola, though he was not to live long enough to see it properly concluded in July 1906, when Dreyfus was fully exonerated.

Schom, Alan. Émile Zola: A Biography . Sharpe Books. Kindle Edition.

Zola intended Germinal to be two things — a description of the intolerable conditions in which human beings forced other human beings to exist in order to create the wealth for their own private pleasures, and a warning that man must become aware of these tragic conditions and correct the injustice before it was too late.

Schom, Alan. Émile Zola: A Biography . Sharpe Books. Kindle Edition.

For France the years 1898 and 1899 stand out as among the most unpleasant and divisive since the Hundred Years’ War. The nation was stunned by Zola’s astonishing accusations in January 1898 and subsequent months brought fresh disclosures to a proud yet pessimistic people who revelled in their colourful history.

Schom, Alan. Émile Zola: A Biography . Sharpe Books. Kindle Edition.

But there is something other than the violations of the law in the first court martial of 1894. There remains the certainty of the innocence of Dreyfus. As far as I am concerned, his innocence is as clear as the sun in the sky. That too I shall attempt to demonstrate to my judges … I have absolute confidence in our ultimate success.[

Schom, Alan. Émile Zola: A Biography . Sharpe Books. Kindle Edition.

Major Henry, now in a desperate situation, forged the first of several documents which were submitted so secretly to the members of the court-martial board, that neither Captain Dreyfus nor his counsel knew of their existence. It was these forgeries that clinched the case for the Army...

Schom, Alan. Émile Zola: A Biography . Sharpe Books. Kindle Edition.

Major Henry leaked this news to Edouard Drumont who quickly published the story in his anti-Semitic paper, La Libre Parole, announcing to Paris that treason had been committed and that Dreyfus, ‘the Jew’, was no doubt the man.


Schom, Alan. Émile Zola: A Biography . Sharpe Books. Kindle Edition.

The traitor...had to be found. The suspicions of the seven officers manning the Military Intelligence Service of the Second Bureau...settled upon a man on the General Staff whom no one liked, a thirty-four-year-old artillery captain.. Alfred Dreyfus. He was rich, he was aloof, he was intelligent and he was Jewish —
Schom, Alan. Émile Zola: A Biography . Sharpe Books. Kindle Edition.

Zola was never elected to the French Academy, and was forced to join the ranks of other celebrated losers, such as Molière, Beaumarchais, Balzac and Flaubert.

Schom, Alan. Émile Zola: A Biography . Sharpe Books. Kindle Edition.

He was also generous with his own income...when it was for a cause in which he believed...when...the small Belgian socialist newspaper, Le Peuple, wrote to Zola requesting to publish one of his books, the author replied: ‘Take Germinal and publish it. I don’t want anything from you, since your newspaper is poor and you defend the needy.’

Schom, Alan. Émile Zola: A Biography . Sharpe Books. Kindle Edition.

When the police watching Zola’s apartment in the rue de Boulogne reported, on 2 April 1884, that the author had left Paris, they were over a month late, for he had left by 23 February. Surveillance of the author had been in effect since September 1873:... clearly he was an ‘enemy of the people’.


Schom, Alan. Émile Zola: A Biography . Sharpe Books. Kindle Edition.

Zola’s disdain of most politics and politicians is well documented. He believed that politics were controlled by ‘little men’ very full of themselves and their selfish inclinations, men rarely sincerely interested in the well-being of their country.

Schom, Alan. Émile Zola: A Biography . Sharpe Books. Kindle Edition.

What he did not know, however... was that two friends whom he greatly respected, concurred with the critics: ‘Are you reading good old Zola’s dramatic serial?’ Flaubert wrote to Turgenev that October. ‘I think he is scuppering himself …’ The Russian replied, ‘There is skill in it … but there is too much stirring of chamber-pots.’[

Schom, Alan. Émile Zola: A Biography . Sharpe Books. Kindle Edition.

The publication of L’Assommoir was to increase Zola’s income astronomically, which meant he could put his money worries permanently behind him.

Schom, Alan. Émile Zola: A Biography . Sharpe Books. Kindle Edition.