ZOLA
ZOEEILLA
and historical works ; and she has trans
lated a number of Italian works into
English. Her philosophy is, in the main,
that of Nietzsche, several of whose works
she has finely translated into English.
ZOLA, Emile Edouard Charles Antoine, French novelist. B. Apr. 2, 1840. Ed. Aix, Paris, and Marseilles. Zola was the son of an Italian engineer who was working in France at the time of his birth. The father died when Emile was seven years old, but the boy obtained a good education at the Lycee St. Louis, Paris. He aspired at once to literary fame, and for several years he worked in great poverty. In 1862 he took a situation as clerk at Hachette s, the publishing firm, and his first publication, Contes a Ninon, followed two years later. It had a fair success, and in 1866 he abandoned clerical work and soon made a name as literary critic in the Paris press. His Thtrese Eaquin (1867) gave definitive proof of his power as a novelist. In 1871 he opened, with La fortune des Eougons, the Eougon- Macquart series the grim and pitiless natural history of a family. The stories were not particularly popular until the appearance of L Assommoir (1878), which had a prodigious circulation ; as had also Nana (1880) and La terra (1888). As the whole of Zola s work breathes a disdainful defiance of Christianity witness, for in stance, the nick-name of the most odious character in La terre the Catholics and many others persisted in misrepresenting Zola s purpose in portraying squalid scenes and characters, and he was for life excluded from the Academy, although he was the most powerful French writer of his time. In Le reve (1888), an idealistic novel, he made a vain attempt to open the doors of the Academy. Naturalist, or prince of naturalists, as he was in his art, Zola was a high-minded idealist who perceived that ugly things survive as long as they are hidden. He retorted heavily and justly on his "idealist" Catholic opponents with his Lourdes, Home, and Paris (1894-98). 917
Meantime the clericals had united with
misguided army leaders in refusing justice
to Dreyfus, and Zola entered upon a
magnificent campaign, with Clemenceau,
for the innocent man. His famous article,
"J Accuse," appeared in the Aurore in
January, 1898. He was prosecuted and
condemned ; but he appealed, and then, on
the advice of his lawyers, left the country,
since there seemed to be no prospect of a
just trial. He returned in 1899, when a
revision of the sentence on Dreyfus was
announced. Three years later he was
accidentally asphyxiated as he lay asleep.
E. A. Vizetelly (Emile Zola, 1904) tells us,
from his father s recollections, that Zola
was baptized a Catholic, but he abandoned
all religion, and became a drastic Voltairean,
in his youth. In later years he was a
temperate Agnostic, only drawn to attack
the Church on account of its evils in
practical life. He was an Honorary Asso
ciate of the E. P. A. D. Sep. 29, 1902.
ZORRILLA, Manuel Ruiz, Spanish statesman. B. 1834. Zorrilla was a lawyer at Madrid when he was drawn into the political struggle of the fifties. He was elected to the Cortes in 1856, and sat with the Progressists. In 1866 he incurred banishment for the first time through assisting in an insurrectionary movement ; but he returned from France at the triumph of the Liberals in 1868, and was appointed Minister of Trade, Public Instruction, and Public Works. In 1869 he was Minister of Justice ; in 1870 President of the Cortes. He accepted Amadeo of Aosta, and was in 1871 chosen Premier and Minister of the Interior. He fell in the same year, but was at the head of a new progressive ministry in 1872. When Amadeo returned to Italy in 1873 Zorrilla found it necessary to retire to France, and from that country he frequently fomented rebellious move ments. Ferrer was involved in one of these Eepublican risings in 1885. Zorrilla had in the previous year been condemned to death, in his absence, by the Spanish courts. He was amnestied in 1894, though 918
