The master of French Naturalism, Zola documented industrial society with the systematic rigour of a scientist. His 20-novel Rougon-Macquart cycle traced heredity and environment through a family across the Second Empire. Germinal — his novel of coal miners — remains the greatest novel of working-class life. His public letter J'Accuse, defending Alfred Dreyfus, was one of the most consequential acts of political journalism in history.

MyHistorian
A causal knowledge graph of history