XIII Maître Labori XIV Zola writing "Fécondité" at Walton XV Penn, and Summerfield, Surrey XVI Penn from the Garden, and Fac-simile Card from Zola to Vizetelly XVII Émile Zola, September, 1898 XVIII Zola's Dining-room XIX Mme. Zola at the Queen's Hotel, Norwood XX Zola's Bedroom XXI M. Anatole France speaking at Zola's Funeral ÉMILE ZOLA NOVELIST AND REFORMER I INTRODUCTORY THE ZOLA FAMILY--BIRTH OF ÉMILE ZOLA The meaning of "Zola"--Localities of that name--The Zola family of Brescia and Venice--Giovanni Battista Zola, saint and martyr--The Abate Giuseppe Zola and his chequered career--The military Zolas of Venice--Benedetta Kiariaki and her offspring--Francesco, father of Émile Zola--His military training--He becomes an engineer and plans one of the first "railways" in Europe--His service in the French Foreign Legion and its strange ending--He plans new docks for the port of Marseilles--His schemes for fortifying Paris and providing Aix in Provence with water--He meets Françoise Émilie Aubert--His romantic courtship and marriage--His home in the Rue St. Joseph, Paris--Birth of Émile Zola--Literature in England, America, and France in 1840--The birth of Émile Zola followed by that of Alphonse Daudet--Contrasting characteristics of those writers. It has been contended, with some plausibility, that the Italian word _zola_ is simply a variant of _zolla_, which means, in a restricted sense, a clod or lump of earth, and, in a broader one, the glebe or soil This circumstance has suggested to certain detractors of Émile Zola and his writings the scornful remark that he was at least well named, having been, indeed, of the earth earthy. Others have retorted, however, that he may well have taken pride in such association, for, far from disowning his Mother Earth, he acknowledged and proclaimed her beneficence, showed himself her worthy son, and a true and zealous brother to all compounded of her clay. In the course of the present memoir it will become necessary to examine the blame and praise so freely showered upon Zola by his enemies and his admirers; but this can be done irrespective of any such fanciful consideration as the alleged meaning of his name. All discussion of that meaning may be left to philologists and those who are superstitiously inclined to detect predestination in nomenclature. At the same time, it may be as well to point out that the name of Zola is borne by several localities in Northern Italy. For instance, there are two villages so called in Lombardy,--one near Palestro in the province of Pavia, and another in the Valle di sotto, province of Sondrio. In the Emilia, moreover, towards Bologna, there is the small but ancient township of Zola-Predosa, which takes its name from two castellanies united early in the fourteenth century. And as far south as Tuscany, in the province of Florence, one finds a village called Zola incorporated in the Comune