ZOLA DEAD.

Evening Star, Issue 11696, 30 September 1902, Page 6

ZOLA DEAD.

" - - . r ,r Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. PARIS, September 29. (Received September 30, at 1.7 pjn) M. Entile Zola, the novelise, is dead. The cause -was accidental asphyxiation. Zola was sixty-two years of age. * (Received September 20, at 1.7 p.m.) iL Zola's death was caused "by a defective stove pipe in his bedroom. , Madame Zola was also affected, hat die is recovering.

[M. Emile Zola -was born on April 2, 1840, at Aix: When he was seven his father died, leaving him destitute. Fortunately, his grandmother, Madame Aubert, was' a woman of courage and ability. She kept the home together, and at Aix Zola spent his school days, not unhappily, till the crash came. In 1857 a doable' calamity fell on the' family. Aubert died, and tSic funds of Madame Zola's litigation were exhausted. She went to Paris to seek help from lier, late husband's friends. Thither she was followed by her father and her son, then about eighteen years old. Means were found to enable him to continue his education as a day boy at the Lycee, St. Louis, but the spirit had gone out of the lad, and he did not distinguish himself, except in French composition. Illness kept him back still further, and eventually poverty and unhappiness induced him to try to dispense with the year's study of philosophy usually taken before entering for the "baccalaureat" examination—that is to say, the examination which precedes admission to the university. In his first attempt at Paris he was second on the list in the written. examination, but failed in "viva voce" examination in living languages and literature. Failing again a few months later at Marseilles, he set about earning his livelihood, being then a little under twenty years old. For two months Zola was a clerk in a business house, at a salary of £2 8s a month. . The drudgery was insupportable, the outlook hopeless, so the laid threw the post up, and faced starvation in his devotion to : literature. His ambition at this period was to be a poet, but the sufferings he underwent influenced him as a novelist. From this abject misery he was rescued by the introduction a friend gave him to M. Louis Hachette, head of. the great publishinghouse. In 1862 Zola entered the office as a ■ clerk, at £1 a week. He -was at first employed to pack up parcels of books, but was soon promoted to the advertising department, with a slightly increased salary. All his spare time he devoted to literary work. He gave up poetry, and from 185262 wrote short stories, afterwards published as 'Contes a Ninon.' La the meantime, though business brought him in contact with celebrated men of letters, and though he made acquaintances, he had few friends apart from two old comrades of his schooldays at Aix. As a clerk Zola was a success. At. last he- ventured to submit a poem to his employer. M. Hachette read it, "did not see his way to publishing it," but did see his way to raising his employee's salary and treating him with considerable respect. Before long he asked Zola to write a tale for a child's magazine. ' Scßnr des Pauyres' was written and submitted. It was declined with thanks, and the author told he was a revolutionary. In 1864 Zola's first book, * Contes a Ninon,' appeared, and attracted some attention, without being a great success. It was published by, M, Lacroix, and its publication was considered sufficient reward for the author. Eighteen months followed, during which Zola contributed to journals, and then M. Lacroix published the first book from which Zola drew royalties. It was his novel 'La Confession de Claude.' Barbey d'Aurevilly attacked it, and the Public Prosecutor made some inquiries, hut did not prosecute. Zola now became a journalist in earnest. His literary criticisms led to his being entrusted with art criticism for. ' L'Evenement.'- His articles demolishing established reputations and praising Manet—then considered a daring and ridiculous innovator—raised such a storm that De Yillemessant, the proprietor of the paper, feared the interest they attracted was too dearly purchased. Eventually 'L'Evenement' was incorporated with De Villemessant's other paper, the 'Figaro.' Zola continued for a while to be a contributor, but the proprietor began to regard him with less and less favor, and their connection closed abruptly, barely a year after it had commenced, in February, 1866, with the brightest prospects for the writer. Nothing daunted, Zola worked away, intel alia, at 'Les Mysteres de Marseille,' and at 'Therese Raquin.' The latter, after having appeared in serial form, was published by Lacroix. By the end of 1867, or in January, 1868, its second edition was called for, and though Zola's next book, 'Madeleine Ferat,' was not very successful, he had made his mark and established a Sosition for himself. He then set about is great undertaking, the " Rougon-Mac-quart' series, which has attained a worldwide reputation. His great ambition to become a member of the Academy was unsuccessful. In 1833 he visited London as the guest of the English Institute of Jour-' nalists, and received a cordial reception. His" great achievement was the famous letter he wrote to his countrymen, in which he espoused the cause of Captain Dreyfus, and with voice and pen he did more than any other man in France to secure the retrial of the unhappy prisoner on the Isle of France. Though Zola's efforts helped materially to ensure the ultimate release of Dreyfus from captivity and to rehabilitate that officer in the eyes of the world, they drew on himself the unbridled hatred of the military party and of the antiSemitic Press, who joined forces to encompass his downfall. Zola, however, was a man of strong convictions, and, conscious of the righteousness of the cause he had espoused, he set to work to expose the most infamous cabal of modern times. He was twice tried for revealing State secrets, and was sentenced in contumaciam —he had left Paris before the conviction was officially notified to him—to twelve months' imprisonment and a fine of 3,000 francs. The Dreyfusards kept the agitation alive, and Zola helped them from a safe distance. Eventually the cause of right gained a left-handed triumph. Cavagnac and Boisdeffre, the generals who headed the conspiracy, were driven from office; Colonel Henry, who prepared the infamous "dossier," committed suicide; Esterhazy,' the tool of the .generals, confessed, and fled the country; and the court-martial at Rennes gave Dreyfus a mock acquittal. Zola lived long enough, however, to triumph over his enemies. His best-known works are 'Nana,' 'La Terre,' f La Debacle,' 'Lourdes,' and ' Rome.'