Émile Zola, in full Émile-Édouard-Charles-Antoine Zola, was a French novelist, critic, and political activist who was the most prominent French writer of the late 19th century. He was noted for his theories of naturalism, which underlie his monumental novel series Les Rougon-Macquart, and for his intervention in the Dreyfus Affair through his famous open letter, J'Accuse…!