The painter Vincent Van Gogh read both Zola and Hugo with great enthusiasm in the 1880s, and considered them similar.
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Huysmans claimed that his close friend Zola was a great influence on his work.
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Zola grew up in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France, where he was friendly with the painter Cézanne. His Italian father died when Zola was 7, and his family moved to Paris, where Zola was educated. Not a strong student, he worked at odd jobs and began to write, publishing his first short-story collection, in 1864, and his first novel in 1865, by which time he was a successful journalist. Under the influence of Balzac, he became committed to naturalistic writing. His first successful novel wa more...
Zola grew up in Aix-en-Provence in the south of France, where he was friendly with the painter Cézanne. His Italian father died when Zola was 7, and his family moved to Paris, where Zola was educated. Not a strong student, he worked at odd jobs and began to write, publishing his first short-story collection, in 1864, and his first novel in 1865, by which time he was a successful journalist. Under the influence of Balzac, he became committed to naturalistic writing. His first successful novel was "L'Assommoir" in 1877, which brought him fame and fortune. He abandoned naturalism, however, late in life, and his last works are utopian fantasies. At the age of 62, Zola died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a blocked chimney, although--because of his defense of Dreyfus in the celebrated Dreyfus Affair in his 1898 article, "J'accuse"--the possibility that he was murdered has never been entirely ruled out. less...
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04/01/1840 Paris, France, Western Europe,
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