A Moment of Truth: The Life of Zola — Hugh McLeave

A Moment of Truth is a biographical novel of the life and times of Zola. It is also a cultural fresco of late nineteenth-century France. 


A Moment of Truth tells of Zola's early struggle against poverty and incomprehension; his blood-brother friendship with Paul Cézanne; his backing of the scorned Impressionists; his monumental creation of twenty Rougon-Macquart novels depicting and dissecting the French Second Empire in raw and often lurid prose. 


Finally, this book details Zola's courageous combat against the whole French establishment to win justice for an obscure Jewish captain, Alfred Dreyfus. Zola's unremitting battle for justice in L'Affaire Dreyfus caused his own death in 1902. 


Every page of A Moment of Truth can be traced to Zola's letters, dossiers and other documents and authorities. A Moment of Truth provides new material on Zola's early life and the mystery of his premature death.