Rome by Emile Zola Fiction Literary Classics

<p><strong>Emile Zola was an elegant writer -- more elegant than his reputation as a political firebrand might suggest.</strong> Zola's most famous work was a newspaper article: his impassioned defense of imprisoned Captain Alfred Dreyfus <em>J'accuse.</em> <em>Rome</em> is the second volume of <em>The Three Cities (Les Trois Villes)</em> first published in 1896. The first volume tells of the troubled priest Pierre Froment's journey to <em>Lourdes</em> hoping to find a cure for his spiritual doubts. In <em>Rome</em> Pierre travels to the Holy City hoping to persuade the Pope to approve of his Christian socialist theories. The final book of the trilogy <em>Paris</em> tells of Pierre's return to the City of Light watching the fall of Catholicism and the rise of Pierre's new faith of scientific rationalism.</p>