Émile Zola Collection - The Ladies’ Paradise

Émile-Édouard-Charles-Antoine Zola (1840-1902) was a journalist, a novelist, a playwright, and a political activist. He was one of the most influential French novelists of the 19th century and the founder of the literary and theatrical school of naturalism. Zola was a major figure in the political liberalization of France. During his youth in the south of France, Zola befriended Paul Cézanne, his schoolmate and future renowned Post-Impressionist painter-best known for his incredibly varied painting style that influenced 20th century abstract art. Zola’s first book, Contes à Ninon (Stories for Ninon), was a collection of short stories dedicated to his imaginary childhood love, Ninon. He published his debut novel in 1865, La Confession de Claude, an autobiographical work that chronicled a man falling in love with a sex worker. The book drew the attention of the public as well as of the police, and it was banned in the social circles, causing Zola to lose his job. Zola went on to write Thérèse Raquin (1867), his first major novel, which delves into intrigue, adultery, and murder; and the dark love story Madeleine Férat (1868), his last novel before he started his masterful Rougon-Macquart 20-novel series. Émile Zola’s works include novels, dramas, poetry, and criticism, among which is his famous Les Rougon-Macquart (1871-1893), a cycle of twenty novels which depict various aspects of life and society, such as The Fortune of the Rougons (La Fortune des Rougon) originally published in 1871 and the first novel of the series; The Rush For The Spoil (La Curée), in 1872; The Conquest of Plassans (La Conquête de Plassans), in 1874; The Assommoir - The Prelude to Nana (L’Assommoir), in 1877, the seventh novel of the series, about the suffering of the Parisian working-class; Nana (1880), the ninth installment, which deals with prostitution; Piping Hot! (Pot-Bouille), in 1882, the tenth novel of the cycle and Zola’s most sarcastic satire, which describes daily life in a newly constructed block of flats in late nineteenth-century Paris; The Ladies Paradise (1883), the eleventh novel (original title: Au Bonheur des Dames), which focuses on Octave Mouret, who, in Piping Hot!, meets Caroline Hédouin, the owner of a small silk shop; Germinal (1885), the thirteenth novel in the series, which depicts the mining industry and is considered by some as his masterpiece; and The Soil (La Terre), in 1887-all published by Adeptio Editions.