Émile François Zola was an influential French novelist, the most important example of the literary school of naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalization of France.
More than half of Zola’s novels were part of a set of 20 books collectively known as Les Rougon-Macquart. Unlike Balzac who, in the midst of his literary career resynthesized his work into La Comédie Humaine, Zola from the start at the age of 28 had thought of the complete layout of the series. Set in France’s Second Empire, the series traces the “environmental” influences of violence, alcohol and prostitution which became more prevalent during the second wave of the Industrial Revolution. The series examines two branches of a family: the respectable (that is, legitimate) Rougons and the disreputable (illegitimate) Macquarts for five generations.
Books in order of publication (in French and translated into English):
French language
La Confession de Claude (1865)
Les Mystères de Marseille (1867)
Thérèse Raquin (1867)
Madeleine Férat (1868)
Nouveaux Contes à Ninon (1874)
Le Roman Experimental (1880)
Jacques Damour et autres nouvelles (1880)
L’Attaque du moulin (1877), short story included in Les Soirées de Médan
L’Inondation (The Flood) novella (1880)
Les Rougon-Macquart
La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
La Curée (1871–72)
Le Ventre de Paris (1873)
La Conquête de Plassans (1874)
La Faute de l’Abbé Mouret (1875)
Son Excellence Eugène Rougon (1876)
L’Assommoir (1877)
Une page d’amour (1878)
Nana (1880)
Pot-Bouille (1882)
Au Bonheur des Dames (1883)
La joie de vivre (1884)
Germinal (1885)
L’Œuvre (1886)
La Terre (1887)
Le Rêve (1888)
La Bête humaine (1890)
L’Argent (1891)
La Débâcle (1892)
Le Docteur Pascal (1893)
Les Trois Villes
Lourdes (1894)
Rome (1896)
Paris (1898)
Les Quatre Évangiles
Fécondité (1899)
Travail (1901)
Vérité (1903, published posthumously)
Justice (unfinished)
Works translated into English
The 3 Cities
Lourdes (1894)
Rome (1896)
Paris (1898)
The 4 Gospels
Fruitfulness (1900)
Work (1901)
Truth (1903)
Justice (Unfinished)
Standalones
The Mysteries of Marseilles (1895)
The Fête at Coqueville (1907)
Modern translations
Madeleine Férat (1957)
Thérèse Raquin (1992, 1995, and 2013)
The Flood (2013)
The Rougon-Macquart (1993–2021)
The Fortune of the Rougons (2012)
His Excellency Eugène Rougon (2018)
The Kill (2004)
Money (2016)
The Dream (2018)
The Conquest of Plassans (2014)
Pot Luck (1999)
The Ladies Paradise/The Ladies’ Delight (1995, 2001)
The Sin of Father Mouret (2017)
A Love Story (2017)
The Belly of Paris (2007)
The Bright Side of Life (2018)
The Drinking Den (2000, 2021)
The Masterpiece (1993)
The Beast Within (1999)
Germinal (2004)
Nana (2020)
The Earth (2016)
The Debacle (2000)
Doctor Pascal (2020)
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