Hardcover. 8vo. 492 pp. With an autograph signature of writer-activist on the off white slip attached to the paste down end paper, "Cordialement / Emile Zola". Translated by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly. Galignani Library stamp on lower right corner of paste down end paper. Ex libris plate on verso ffe, with small tear in center of page close to binding, early ownership signature at head of title. Some detachment of front board to binding. Original gilt-blocked cloth, shelf wear to top and bottom edges of board and fraying, else good. 

French novelist, journalist, playwright Émile Zola was the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. A major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in his renowned newspaper opinion headlined J'Accuse...!  Zola was nominated for the first and second Nobel Prizes in Literature in 1901 and 1902.