Order of Emile Zola Books

Emile Zola was a French novelist, playwright, and journalist. He is well known as the self-proclaimed leader of the literary school of French naturalism. Zola’s naturalism is a style that traces philosophically to Auguste Comte’s positivism, but also to physiologist Claude Bernard and historian Hippolyte Taine. His book, The Experimental Novel is considered a naturalistic novel and one of the key works of the style. His writing helped to inspire the concepts of heredity, social Manicheanism, and idealistic socialism,

Zola started working in the sale department for the publisher Hachette and that lead to him writing for them eventually. One of his early works, a sordid autobiographical novel called La Confession de Claude, attracted police attention that lead to him being fired from Hatchette. His breakout novel was called Thérèse Raquin and shortly after its release he started the series called Les Rougon-Macquart that would make up more than half of his literary output.

Publication Order of Four Social Romances Books

Fruitfulness	(1899)
Work	(1901)
Truth	(2017)

Publication Order of Rougon-Macquart Books

The Fortune of the Rougons	(1870)
The Kill	(1872)
The Belly of Paris	(1873)
The Conquest of Plassans	(1874)
The Sin of Father Mouret	(1875)
His Excellency Eugene Rougon	(1876)
The Drinking Den	(1877)
A Love Episode	(1877)
Nana	(1880)
Restless House	(1882)
The Ladies' Paradise	(1883)
The Bright Side of Life	(1883)
Germinal	(1885)
The Masterpiece	(1886)
The Soil	(1887)
The Dream	(1888)
The Beast in Man	(1890)
Money	(1891)
The Downfall	(1892)
Doctor Pascal	(1893)

Publication Order of Three Cities Books

Rome	(1896)
Lourdes	(1914)
Paris	(2014)

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Claude's Confession	(1865)
Therese Raquin	(1867)
The Mysteries of Marseilles	(1867)
Madeleine Ferat	(1868)
The Miller's Daughter	(1880)
The Heirs of Rabourdin	(1894)
Travail: Labor	(1901)
The Fête at Coqueville	(1907)
A Mad Love	(2017)
Piping Hot! a Realistic Novel	(2017)
A Dead Woman's Wish	(2018)

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

The Flood	(1880)
The Death Of Olivier Becaille	(2010)
Three Short Stories	(2015)

Publication Order of Collections

(with)

Dead Men Tell No Tales	(1877)
Collected Works Of Emile Zola	(1938)
The Best Known Works of Emile Zola	(1941)
Four Short Stories By Emile Zola	(2006)
Stories for Ninon	(2010)
Four Short Stories	(2017)
Attack on the Mill and Other Stories	(2018)

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

The Experimental Novel and Other Essays	(1880)
I Accuse!	(1898)
The Dreyfus Affair	(1898)
The Dreyfus Case	(1898)
Notes from Exile	(2003)
Looking at Manet	(2013)

Publication Order of Anthologies

Fays of the Sea and Other Fantasies

(2021)

If You Like Emile Zola Books, You’ll Love…

• H.G. Wells
• Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Alexandre Dumas

The Belly of Paris is considered to be one of his classic works. The book follows Florent Quenu who is deported to Devil’s Island following Louis-Napoleon’s coup-d’état in December 1851. Quenu escapes and make his return to Paris, only to find the city unrecognizable as it has changed so much since he left. He finds that the world has great food and the society has devolved into a devotion to food and government so he decides to attempt an an insurrection.

Another classic is called The Ladies’ Paradise. This story recounts the development of the modern department store in late nineteenth century Paris and how that store has become the symbol of capitalism, the modern city, and the bourgeois family. Octave Mouret is the store’s owner-manager who exploits the desires of his female customers for his own gains. Things change when he falls in love with the innocent Denise Baudu, but she is the only one who won’t be commodified.