Writing Style of Émile Zola

Posts revealing or discussing the characteristic writing style of Émile Zola.

Literal Paintings

Zola had great interest in paintings. He had been a strong promoter of Impressionism; supported and befriended young artists such as Manet and Cézanne. His literary style often had quality of a painting. Here are some examples:

- in The Kill
- in The Sin of Abbe Mouret
- in A Love Story

Naturalism Metaphor

Zola often uses natural things as metaphor. In The Belly of Paris, for instance, cheeses are described as fruits. In Germinal, the mining machine becomes a giant beast; and a steam locomotive transforms into a woman in La Bete Humaine. Some of them are:

- in La Bête Humaine

Heredity Problem

As a Naturalist, Zola believed that human psychology is heavily influenced by heredity and environment. He wrote the twenty novels in The Rougon Macquart series to study this. Here are some of them: