The New York Times film critic shows why we need criticism now more than ever Few could explain, let alone seek out, a career in criticism. Yet what A.O. Scott

Did possessing and killing amount to the same thing deep within the dark recesses of the human beast? La Bete humaine (1890), is one of Zola's most violent and

Émile Zola (1840-1902) has become one of the most adapted authors of all time, but while much has been made of his adaptation into cinema and theatre, televisi

The seventh novel in Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle, The Assommoir is the story of a woman's struggle for happiness in working-class Paris.