Zola (1840-1902) was a French novelist, playwright, journalist and the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism. More than half of his novels were part of a set of 20 collectively known as Les Rougon-Macquart set in France's Second Empire. This work, first published in the original French is 1901 and reprinted from an English translation of the same date, is the second book in his last series, Les Quatres Evangiles, the final book of which was unfinished at the time of his death.