Zola (1840-1902) was a French novelist, playwright and journalist, and the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism. He was nominated for the first and second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 and 1902. More than half of Zola's novels were part of a set of 20 known collectively as Les Rougon-Macquart, examining two branches of a family - the respectable Rougons and the disreputable Macquarts - over five generations. This novel is the 18th in the series and was serialised in the periodical Gil Blas beginning in November 1890 before being published in book form in March 1891. The novel focuses on the financial world of the Second Empire as embodied in the Paris Bourse, showing the terrible effects of speculation and fraudulent company promotion, the culpable negligence of company directors and the impotency of contemporary financial laws. The central character is Aristide Saccard (born Rougon), the youngest son of Pierre and Felicite Rougon who is first introduced in The Fortune of the Rougons and whose rise to wealth using underhand methods is detailed in The Kill (La curee), the second book in the series.