The Mysteries of Marseilles (1895) is a novel by French author Émile Zola. Originally serialized in Le Messager de Provence in 1867, The Mysteries of Marseilles was written at the very beginning of Zola’s literary career. Intent on exploring taboo and the lives of people on the edge of society, Zola crafts a narrative capable of illuminating the human condition while humanizing those typically disdained by the literary elite. In mid-nineteenth century France, a Second Republic has come into power following the Revolution of 1848, installing Napoleon III as the nation’s first president. Over the next several years, the country enters a period of liberal reform and temporary peace. In Marseilles, a poor republican named Philippe Cayot has fallen in love with the young heiress Blanche de Cazalis, a member of one of the city’s most influential families. When their affair is discovered, Philippe is sent to prison and Blanche, after giving birth to an illegitimate child, is forced to enter a convent. Undeterred by the tragedy and injustice of these events, Philippe’s brother Marius hatches a plan to protect the young lovers, rescue their child, and take control of the de Cazalis family fortune. The Mysteries of Marseilles is a story of forbidden love, fading hope, and the false promise of modern life. Written at the very beginning of Zola’s career, it shows the innerworkings of a young mind interested in subjects too often ignored by writers, a mind whose guiding principle is truth and truth alone. This edition of Émile Zola’s The Mysteries of Marseilles is a classic work of French literature reimagined for modern readers.
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Émile Zola (1840-1902) was a French novelist, journalist, and playwright. Born in Paris to a French mother and Italian father, Zola was raised in Aix-en-Provence. At 18, Zola moved back to Paris, where he befriended Paul Cézanne and began his writing career. During this early period, Zola worked as a clerk for a publisher while writing literary and art reviews as well as political journalism for local newspapers. Following the success of his novel Thérèse Raquin (1867), Zola began a series of twenty novels known as Les Rougon-Macquart, a sprawling collection following the fates of a single family living under the Second Empire of Napoleon III. Zola’s work earned him a reputation as a leading figure in literary naturalism, a style noted for its rejection of Romanticism in favor of detachment, rationalism, and social commentary. Following the infamous Dreyfus affair of 1894, in which a French-Jewish artillery officer was falsely convicted of spying for the German Embassy, Zola wrote a scathing open letter to French President Félix Faure accusing the government and military of antisemitism and obstruction of justice. Having sacrificed his reputation as a writer and intellectual, Zola helped reverse public opinion on the affair, placing pressure on the government that led to Dreyfus’ full exoneration in 1906. Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 and 1902, Zola is considered one of the most influential and talented writers in French history.
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