Delphi Complete Works of Emile Zola

by Émile Zola

For the first time in the English language, Delphi Classics is proud to present the complete fictional works of the French master Émile Zola. This monumental eBook features beautiful illustrations, informative introductions.

CONTENTS:

The Early Novels
CLAUDE’S CONFESSION
THE DEAD WOMAN’S WISH
THE MYSTERY OF MARSEILLE
THERESE RAQUIN
MADELEINE FERAT

The Rougon-Macquart Cycle
THE FORTUNE OF THE ROUGONS
THE KILL
THE FAT AND THE THIN
THE CONQUEST OF PLASSANS
ABBE MOURET’S TRANSGRESSION
HIS EXCELLENCY EUGENE ROUGON
THE DRAM SHOP
A LOVE EPISODE
NANA
PIPING HOT
THE LADIES’ PARADISE
THE JOY OF LIFE
GERMINAL
HIS MASTERPIECE
THE EARTH
THE DREAM
THE HUMAN BEAST
MONEY
THE DOWNFALL
DOCTOR PASCAL

The Three Cities
LOURDES
ROME
PARIS

The Four Gospels
FRUITFULNESS
LABOUR
TRUTH

The Short Stories
STORIES FOR NINON
NEW STORIES FOR NINON
PARISIAN SKETCHES
THE ATTACK ON THE MILL
THE FLOOD
CAPTAIN BURLE
THE MILLER’S DAUGHTER
THE DEATH OF OLIVIER BECAILLE
NAÏS MICOULIN

J’Accuse !
I ACCUSE...!

The Criticism
ÉMILE ZOLA by Henry James
THE ZOLA CONTROVERSY by G. K. Chesterton
M. ZOLA by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
An Extract from ‘MY LITERARY PASSIONS’ by William Dean Howells
ÉMILE ZOLA by William Dean Howells
ZOLA by Henryk Sienkiewicz
BORLASE AND SON by James Joyce

The Biography
WITH ZOLA IN ENGLAND by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly

Resources
THE ROUGON-MACQUART FAMILY TREE
INDEX OF CHARACTERS IN THE ROUGON-MACQUART SERIES
INDEX OF LOCATIONS IN THE ROUGON-MACQUART SERIES

Genres: Classics, Fiction, France, Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literature, Collections

14584 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1902

About the author

Émile Zola was a prominent French novelist, journalist, and playwright widely regarded as a key figure in the development of literary naturalism. His work profoundly influenced both literature and society through its commitment to depicting reality with scientific objectivity and exploring the impact of environment and heredity on human behavior. Born and raised in France, Zola experienced early personal hardship following the death of his father, which deeply affected his understanding of social and economic struggles—a theme that would later permeate his writings.
Zola began his literary career working as a clerk for a publishing house, where he developed his skills and cultivated a passion for literature. His early novels, such as Thérèse Raquin, gained recognition for their intense psychological insight and frank depiction of human desires and moral conflicts. However, it was his monumental twenty-volume series, Les Rougon-Macquart, that established his lasting reputation. This cycle of novels offered a sweeping examination of life under the Second French Empire, portraying the lives of a family across generations and illustrating how hereditary traits and social conditions shape individuals’ destinies. The series embodies the naturalist commitment to exploring human behavior through a lens informed by emerging scientific thought.
Beyond his literary achievements, Zola was a committed social and political activist. His involvement in the Dreyfus Affair is one of the most notable examples of his dedication to justice. When Captain Alfred Dreyfus was wrongfully accused and convicted of treason, Zola published his famous open letter, J’Accuse…!, which condemned the French military and government for corruption and anti-Semitism. This act of courage led to his prosecution and temporary exile but played a crucial role in eventual justice for Dreyfus and exposed deep divisions in French society.
Zola’s personal life was marked by both stability and complexity. He married Éléonore-Alexandrine Meley, who managed much of his household affairs, and later had a long-term relationship with Jeanne Rozerot, with whom he fathered two children. Throughout his life, Zola remained an incredibly prolific writer, producing not only novels but also essays, plays, and critical works that investigated the intersections between literature, science, and society.
His legacy continues to resonate for its profound impact on literature and for his fearless commitment to social justice. Zola’s work remains essential reading for its rich narrative detail, social critique, and pioneering approach to the realistic portrayal of human life. His role in the Dreyfus Affair stands as a powerful example of the intellectual’s responsibility to speak truth to power.

Reviews

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name]

Is it a sign of madness that I’ve read Proust, I’m currently reading de Balzac, and I’m thinking of going for Zola next?

I think im suffering from Bookholm Syndrome

Don’t worry! Nobody panic! I haven’t lost whatever part of my mind that regulates my love of literature! The rest of it, probably.

[Frankie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd heard unflattering things about Zola's writing, and judging by the small attention paid to his work, I had to assume that he was less talented than Flaubert, Proust and his contemporaries. It is sad that I've heard more about him in my reading about his friend Cézanne and his non-literary career. Just based on his political stand against anti-semitism with the Dreyfus Affair, he deserves credit as a civil rights leader and humanitarian. My biggest fear was that Zola would read like Rousseau, whose Confessions I unfortunately found to be insipid.

I found Zola however very talented, and even on par with Flaubert and Stendhal, and nearly so with Proust. His characters seem slightly shallow in development, and his circumstances a little theatrical. Perhaps though the fault is not his, since Parisian society was a very impractical setting. One could simply not make the same moral or philosophical points in Paris, as one could in Moscow or London.

The novel Nana was lovely. I can't imagine a better portrait of dissipation, and luckily for the reader it wasn't acclaimed as much as an Austen novel, or it would've been censored heavily. I noticed some reviews that take issue with Nana's inconsistency and melodrama. This is an anti-hero, people. A good writer can draw a reader in, make you empathize with the main character and then despise them when you see their duplicity. If you manage to get to the end you can see what Zola thinks of her. He never indicts her for her sexual immorality, it's her manipulation that makes her evil.

The other stories didn't disappoint either. My only hesitation with his shorter fiction is that he perhaps spends too much time on setting descriptions. In Nais Micoulin, several pages are devoted to the Rostands' home in town, when not a second of the action takes place there: the action of the story takes place completely at the dacha. This and other over-exposition leaves me to think that Zola meant to expand some of these stories into novels. Other than this, they are all well-developed and remind me somewhat of Chekhov.

The Inundation is my favorite, and had me weeping. It's a nearly journalistic account of a flash flood, told from a 70 year old grandfather's point of view, as his family and farm are destroyed in the course of one evening. Another favorite is The Death of Olivier Becaille, a somewhat gothic tale in the Poe tradition.

If you like Flaubert and Stendhal, you really should at least read Zola's Nana.

[Dora Ilieva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Authors like Zola make me wish I'd lived a hundred and fifty years ago.

[Peter Warr · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy 19th C fiction, you will enjoy these novels. Powerful characters, luscious decription, intriguing plotlines, Zola has them all.
Zola is a beautiful writer who compels us to read on. His portrayal of France in this era is secong to none in creating a vision and understanding of a people in turmoil.
It's easy to see how the masterpieces earned that title: Germinal, The Earth, The Debacle etc are hugely engaging works of art in themselves, but when read alongside the slighter works in the R-M series of 24 novels the whole worldview of the author becomes clear.
There are few literary masters out there to rival him.

[Grahambootle · Rating 2 out of 5]

It must be me, I used to really enjoy reading Zola, but even old favorites like Germinal didn't quite hit the spot. Sorry Emil, it's not you it me.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

Complete collection; reviews under individual titles

[Jane De vries · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've now added L'Assommoir, included in this list.
Way too depressing to earn 5 stars but I managed to read it in French, avec beaucoup d'effort. It is the book which made him famous so that alone makes it a must read.

I look forward to the next selection in the Rouget-Maquart series; always something new with Zola.

[Colleen Rhea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could not find the exact volume that I read, so this will have to substitute. I was quite intrigued by the stories in this volume. I think my favorite was "Nana," although it was the longest in the edition I read. With a little research, I found that there are several cinematic takes on this story, which I may watch in the future.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read the Rougon Macquart 20 books from here with very limited errors and reviewed each book under the title. When I read another book I will do the same. I found the glossary of characters extremely helpful in sorting all out and remembering the family members.

[Sally Anspach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read #7 of the Rougon-Macquart series, La Terre.

[Raquel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great writer.

[Scheherazade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars, novels to be read and reread, timeless.

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

another one of these crappy walter black anthologies with lots of typos, smudged letters, no footnotes or indications of translator. contained are two novels in the rougon-macquart cycle, nana and a love episode as well as five short stories outside of it, the miller's daughter, captain burle, the death of olivier becaille, jacques damour, and the inundation. i had previously read the version of nana in here several years ago and it was one of the heavily bowdlerized translations, so i'd like to re-read it elsewhere. i didn't read nana this time around, so just sticking with the latter half of the volume, a love episode was decent, but the best works were the short stories, in particular the miller's daughter and inundation, both of which were incredibly tense

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This kindle edition is a great bargain and Zola is still very readable. I'd say the translations are adequate since so much of his fiction is driven by plot. There's a huge number of novels in the collection but you may as well start with the best known: Germinal, Nana, Therese Raquin. But even the lesser known ones are good reading if you have an interest in 19th century France. Le Debacle, or The Downfall, is a good picture of the collapse of France following the 1870 defeat by the Prussians.

[Solomiya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Містечковість – ось яка, на перший погляд, не значна риса людської натури найкраще зображена в цій книзі. Гра на протиставленні поведінки та манер абата Фоже та Муре інколи може здатись доволі банальною, але все ж заставляє себе задуматися. Після прочитання з*являється віра в те, що змінитися можна будь-коли. Однозначно вдалий вибір для проведення вихідних.

[David Lappin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Germinal

A fantastic compendium of novels. All worth reading . Rougon Maquart series are mostly phenomenal. Some readers may find s few of the books suffer from recent changes in society. Others novels could have been written within the last generation.

[Rodney Landi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Zola, but the collected works was just too much of a good thing. Even with frequent breaks, I thought I would never get through it!

[Oumaima Hassoun · Rating 5 out of 5]

The accomplishment of François Zola's son :)

[Matt K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for some French standards.

[Iosif Csorba]

Very good!

[Tristan]

I read “Au Bonheur des Dames” at school and hated it. Then I read “La Bete Humaine” on my own initiative and loved it. Either way that was decades ago. I really need to rediscover this celebrated author.