The Vizetelly family were Émile Zolaʼs closest friends in England both before and after the trial by default at Versailles on 18 July 1898, when Zola was sentenced to twelve monthsʼ imprisonment on the charge of having libelled Commandant Esterhazy in his famous ʻJʼAccuseʼ letter. His particular friend was Ernest Alfred, my grandfather, who, with his family, took care of Zola during his exile in England. In his books,With Zola in England and Emile Zola: Novelist and Reformer, Ernest gives many details of Zola's stay. He is only one, however, of a quite extraordinary family, and the following is...

ʻIʼm surprised,ʼ wrote Zola to a correspondent who complained that Zola hadnʼt received his letter. ʻAll you have to do is write ʻÉmile Zola, Franceʼ on an envelope, and the letter will get to me.ʼ¹ This casual remark, in fact, sums up Zolaʼs reputation at the moment he was to leave for exile in England. In 1893 he had completed his monumental twenty-volume novel series,Les Rougon-Macquart. Histoire naturelle et sociale dʼune famille sous le Second Empire, and in March had just publishedParis, the third volume of his trilogy,Les Trois Villes. For almost twenty years, the publication of...

Monday, 18July 1898.¹ Desmoulin and I leave the Rue de Bruxelles at eight oʼclock in the morning. (I wasnʼt to return: we were so confident that the appeal would defer further enquiries regarding the connection between the two cases² that nothing was ready for my departure that evening, since the departure was completely unexpected. I didnʼt say goodbye to anyone at home, didnʼt even hug Pinpin.) We ate breakfast at the Charpentierʼs, where Jane³ welcomed us. Left in a carriage at a quarter to ten. Through the Bois de Boulogne and Sèvres. Arrived at Versailles about eleven twenty. As soon...