Emile Zola (1840—1902) was born in Paris and worked as a journalist before turning to fiction. With the publication of L’Assommoir, he became the most famous writer in France. His work has influenced authors from August Strindberg to Theodore Dreiser to Tom Wolfe. Zola was nominated for the first two Nobel Prizes in Literature.
Robin Buss is a writer and translator who works for the Independent on Sunday and as television critic for The Times Educational Supplement. He studied at the University of Paris, where he earned a degree and a doctorate in French literature. He is part-author of the article “French Literature” in the Encyclopaedia Britannica and has published critical studies of works by Vigny and Cocteau and three books on European cinema, The French Through Their Films (1988), Italian Films (1989), and French Film Noir (1994). He has also translated a number of volumes for Penguin Classics.
