Cirrus@Austlit

Regarded as the foremost practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism, Emile Zola was a major figure in the political liberalisation of France. His greates achievement as a writer is the monumental 20-novel series Les Rougon-Macquart. His contribution to both French and international literature was acknowledged in 1901 and 1902 when he was nominated for the first and second Nobel Prize in Literature awards.

Zola is included in AustLit because some of his works were the basis of theatrical adaptation and burlesque during the nineteenth century.