Zola, Émile-Edouard-Charles-Antoine

Zola, Émile-Edouard-Charles-Antoine (1840–1902), French novelist and dramatist, who, though mainly remembered for his novels, in particular the 20 volumes of Les Rougon-Macquart (1871–93), had an important influence on the development of the French, and so of the European, theatre of his day. As the leader of the naturalistic school of literature, he much disliked the facile, optimistic works of such dramatists as Scribe, and thought that a play should be a ‘slice of life’, thrown on the stage without embellishment or artifice. He exemplified his theory in his own plays, particularly Thérèse Raquin (1873), which he based on an earlier novel of the same name. In an English translation, this was seen in London in 1891 and has been several times revived, notably in 1938 as Thou Shalt Not… In 1945 it was produced in New York as Therese. Zola's other plays were less successful. The only other one to have been translated into English is a comedy, Les Héritiers Rabourding (1874), which as The Heirs of Rabourdin was produced in 1894 by Grein's Independent Theatre Club. One of Zola's novels, L' Assommoir, was dramatized and in an English version, Drink, by Charles Reade and Charles Warner, had a long run in London in 1879, Warner playing the chief part.