The Disappearance of Emile Zola - by Michael Rosen (Paperback)

About the Book

The incredible story of Émile Zola's escape to London in the aftermath of the scandalous Dreyfus Affair.

Book Synopsis

It is the evening of July 18, 1898 and the world-renowned novelist Émile Zola is on the run. His crime?

Taking on the highest powers in the land with his open letter "J'accuse"--and losing. Forced to leave Paris

with nothing but the clothes he is standing in and a nightshirt wrapped in newspaper, Zola flees to England

with no idea when he will return.

This is the little-known story of Zola's time in exile. Rosen has traced Zola's footsteps from the Gare du

Nord to London, examining the significance of this year. The Disappearance of Émile Zola offers an

intriguing insight into the mind, the loves, and the politics of the great writer during this tumultuous era in

his life.

Review Quotes

The Disappearance of Émile Zola recalls that Zola's habit of boundlessness continued during his exile, as his letters and works from that period demonstrate his reckoning with the politics and literature that remained swirling in his mind.

A gripping account of a lost period in the life of Zola.--Brian Klug, PhD, University of Oxford

A thoughtful examination of anti-Semitism and French jurisprudence in the late 19th-century. The author also tells his story with great wit. Zola had a knack for turbulence, both in his fiction and in his personal life. This lively account documents one of the most turbulent and consequential episodes of all.

Absorbing.

Michael Rosen's handsomely-written new book depicts with candor and vivacity the lengths at which one great artist fought for moral clarity.

Not a dispassionate work of history but a homage to Zola for his fight against anti-Semitism. There is a certain charm in Rosen's portrayal of the great writer's solitary sojourn in south London.

Remarkable. Rosen not only captures Zola's despair but also describes the inaccuracies found in newspaper accounts about his whereabouts. This work further reveals the divisiveness of French society during this period, exacerbated by the Dreyfus affair. For all readers interested in 19th-century France and French literature.

Rosen reminds readers of the price Zola paid for voicing the convictions of conscience when he took up the cause of Alfred Dreyfus. A profoundly humanizing account of a previously opaque literary-political episode.

The Dreyfus Affair and Zola's part in it retain their fascination. Mr. Rosen's chronicle addresses them from an interesting angle. The book reads easily and enjoyably and pays proper tribute to Zola's pertinacity and decency.

Zola's slogan was 'Reality is Truth, ' but how to find that reality? Rosen poses Zola's dilemma, naturalism or impressionism, interestingly. Thought-provoking.