Literary Birthday – 2 April – Émile Zola

Émile Zola was born on 2 April 1840 and died on 29 September 1902.

Émile Zola Quotes

1. If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.
2. Truth is on the march; nothing can stop it now.
3. Civilisation will not attain perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest.
4. The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.
5. If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow, and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through it will blow up everything in its way.
6. Everything is only a dream.
7. There are two men inside the artist, the poet and the craftsman. One is born a poet. One becomes a craftsman.
8. One forges one’s style on the terrible anvil of daily deadlines.
9. When you have a sorrow that is too great it leaves no room for any other.

Émile Zola was an influential French novelist, critic, and political activist. He was the most important example of the literary school of naturalism and a major figure in the political liberalisation of France. After the publication of l’Assommoir, Zola became a figurehead among the literary bourgeoisie. The novel, Germinal established him as a successful author. Germinal expresses outrage at the exploitation of the many by the few, but also shows humanity’s capacity for compassion and hope. Zola’s intervention in the Dreyfus Affair, with his open letter J’accuse, further solidified his legacy. His writing is available in The Complete Works of Emile Zola.

Source for Image: Dr. Michael Pearce, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Luc_Barbut_Davray_Zola.jpg

by Amanda Patterson

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