Émile Zola is regarded as one of the great French novelists of the 19th century and as a leading figure and founder of the literary movement of Naturalism. While Zola initially published loosely connected novels and worked as a journalist, he began to conceive the majority of his novels from 1869 as parts of a cycle titled "Les Rougon-Macquart. Histoire naturelle et sociale d'une famille sous le Second Empire." The total of 20 novels in the series address the major social and political issues of his time through the lens of a family saga. In this context, the struggle between the bourgeoisie (represented by the Rougons) and the lower class (represented by the Macquarts) plays a crucial role. Zola, himself a moderate leftist, aimed to enrich the rather conservative literature of France with progressive elements.