Short biographical essay. According to Wikipedia: 'Emile Zola (2 April 1840 - 29 September 1902) was an influential French writer, the most important example of the literary school of naturalism, and a major figure in the political liberalization of France. After his first major novel, Therese Raquin (1867), Zola started the long series called Les Rougon Macquart, about a family under the Second Empire. More than half of Zola's novels were part of this set of 20 collectively known as Les Roug