About the Author

Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (1840 - 1902) was a French novelist, playwright, journalist, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J'accuse. Zola was nominated for the first and second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 and 1902. Ernest Alfred Vizetelly (1853-1922) was an English journalist and author. He was a son of the English publisher Henry Vizetelly, by his first marriage to Ellen Elizabeth Pollard. He was known as a war correspondent. Ernest republished some of his father's works by Émile Zola but modified them. Ernest was present with his father at the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War and wrote a memoir of his experiences My Days of Adventure; the Fall of France, 1870-71 which also contains an autobiographical introduction.