Emile Zola

On 13 January 1898 the novelist Emile Zola published J'accuse, an open letter to President Felix Faure, on the front page of the Paris daily L'Aurore. It accused the army and government of covering up the wrongful conviction of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. Zola was tried for criminal libel, with the trial beginning on 7 February 1898. On 23 February he was convicted and removed from the Legion of Honour. In July 1898 he fled to England, arriving at Victoria Station on 19 July, and he returned in June 1899.

Zola did not live to see the end. He died on 29 September 1902 of carbon monoxide poisoning from an improperly ventilated chimney. His enemies were blamed, but nothing could be proved. Four years later, on 12 July 1906, the Court of Cassation cleared Dreyfus, the man he had defended. On 4 June 1908 Zola's remains were moved to the Pantheon in Paris, the burial place of France's national heroes.