Editing Émile Zola (section)

==Death==
[[File:Zola mort.jpg|thumb|Zola on his deathbed]]
Zola died on 29 September 1902 of [[carbon monoxide poisoning]] caused by an improperly ventilated chimney.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/strange-death-emile-zola |title=The Strange Death of Emile Zola |publisher=History Today|volume=  52 |date=9 September 2002|access-date=21 February 2017}}</ref> His funeral on 5 October was attended by thousands. Alfred Dreyfus initially had promised not to attend the funeral, but was given permission by Zola's widow and attended.<ref>{{cite news |title=Thousands March at Funeral of Émile Zola: Municipal Guards Line the Route to Preserve Order |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1902/10/06/archives/thousands-march-at-funeral-of-emile-zola-municipal-guards-line-the.html?mtrref=undefined&gwh=352E09B00A14DDA634743B27DD7B42D0&gwt=pay |date=6 October 1902 |newspaper=The New York Times|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=29 June 2002 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/jun/29/featuresreviews.guardianreview1 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |title=From the archives The tragic death of M. Zola", 30 September 1902}}</ref> At the time of his death Zola had just completed a novel, {{lang|fr|Vérité}}, about the Dreyfus trial. A sequel, {{lang|fr|Justice}}, had been planned, but was not completed.

[[Image:Grave of Emile Zola.JPG|thumb|upright|Gravestone of Émile Zola at cimetière Montmartre; his remains are now interred in the [[Panthéon (Paris)|Panthéon]].]]

His enemies were blamed for his death because of previous attempts on his life, but nothing could be proven at the time. Expressions of sympathy arrived from everywhere in France; for a week the vestibule of his house was crowded with notable writers, scientists, artists, and politicians who came to inscribe their names in the registers.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/milezolanovelis00vizegoog |page=[https://archive.org/details/milezolanovelis00vizegoog/page/n569 511] |title=Émile Zola, Novelist and Reformer: An Account of His Life & Work |last=Vizetelly |first=Ernest Alfred |date=1904 |publisher=John Lane, the Bodley Head |language=en}}</ref> On the other hand, Zola's enemies used the opportunity to celebrate in malicious glee.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/stream/emilezolanovelis027701mbp/emilezolanovelis027701mbp_djvu.txt |title=Full text of 'Emile Zola Novelist And Reformer An Account Of His Life And Work'|access-date=7 February 2014}}</ref> Writing in ''[[L'Intransigeant]]'', [[Henri Rochefort]] claimed Zola had committed suicide, having discovered Dreyfus to be guilty.

Zola was initially buried in the [[Cimetière de Montmartre]] in Paris, but on 4 June 1908, just five years and nine months after his death, his remains were relocated to the [[Panthéon, Paris|Panthéon]], where he shares a crypt with [[Victor Hugo]] and [[Alexandre Dumas (père)|Alexandre Dumas]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.parisphotogallery.com/Paris/photos/monuments/Pantheon/Interior_crypt_Victor_Hugo_Alexandre_Dumas_Emile_Zola_10526.htm |title=Paris Monuments Panthéon-Close up picture of the interior of the crypt of Victor Hugo (left) Alexandre Dumas (middle) Emile Zola (right) |publisher=ParisPhotoGallery |access-date=30 January 2012 |archive-date=19 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419194137/http://www.parisphotogallery.com/Paris/photos/monuments/Pantheon/Interior_crypt_Victor_Hugo_Alexandre_Dumas_Emile_Zola_10526.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The ceremony was disrupted by an assassination attempt on [[Alfred Dreyfus]] by {{ill|Louis Grégori|fr}}, a disgruntled journalist and admirer of [[Édouard Drumont]], in which Dreyfus was wounded in the arm by the gunshot. Grégori was acquitted by the Parisian court which accepted his defense that he had not meant to kill Dreyfus, meaning merely to graze him.

[[Image:Pantheon Grablege Dumas Zola Hugo.jpg|thumb|upright|Graves of [[Alexandre Dumas]], [[Victor Hugo]] and Émile Zola at the [[Panthéon, Paris|Panthéon]] in Paris]]

A 1953 investigation by journalist Jean Bedel published in the newspaper ''[[Libération (newspaper, 1941-1964)|Libération]]'' under the headline "Was Zola assassinated?" raised the idea that Zola's death might have been a murder rather than an accident.<ref name="Mounier-Kuhn-2014">{{cite news |last=Mounier-Kuhn |first=Angélique |title=L'asphyxie d'Émile Zola |work=[[Le Temps]] |date=8 August 2014 |pages=8–9 |url=https://www.letemps.ch/culture/lasphyxie-demile-zola |language=fr |quote={{hairspace}}''Hacquin, je vais vous dire comment Zola est mort''. [...] ''Zola a été asphyxié volontairement. C'est nous qui avons bouché la cheminée de son appartement''. |trans-quote=Hacquin, I'm going to tell you how Zola died. [...] Zola was asphyxiated on purpose. It was us who blocked the chimney of his apartment.{{hairspace}}}}</ref> It is based on the revelation by Norman pharmacist Pierre Hacquin, who was told by chimney-sweep Henri Buronfosse that he intentionally blocked the chimney of Zola's apartment in Paris.<ref name="Mounier-Kuhn-2014" />
Literary historian Alain Pagès believes that is likely true<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pagès |first1=Alain |title=L'affaire Dreyfus : vérités et légendes |date=2019 |publisher=Perrin |location=Paris |isbn=978-2262074944}}</ref> and Zola's great-granddaughters, Brigitte Émile-Zola and Martine Le Blond-Zola, corroborate this explanation of Zola's poisoning by carbon monoxide. As reported in ''[[L'Orient-Le Jour]]'', Brigitte Émile-Zola recounts that her grandfather Jacques Émile-Zola, son of Émile Zola, told her at the age of eight that, in 1952, a man came to his house to give him information about his father's death. The man had been with a dying friend, who had confessed to taking money to plug Emile Zola's chimney.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Andréa |first1=Alain E. |title=Émile Zola : ses arrière-petites-filles accusent... |url=https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1185942/emile-zola-ses-arriere-petites-filles-accusent.html |access-date=6 September 2022 |work=L'Orient-Le Jour |date=10 September 2019 |quote=Brigitte Émile-Zola abonde dans le sens de M. Pagès. 'Je l'ai appris à 8 ans chez mon grand-père, le docteur Jacques Émile-Zola, fils d'Émile Zola, qui m'a élevée. En 1952, un homme s'est présenté chez mon grand-père pour lui donner une information sur la mort de son père. Il a raconté qu'il avait assisté un ami dans ses derniers instants. Celui-ci s'était confessé à lui en lui expliquant que, lorsqu'il était ouvrier sur un immeuble situé près de celui où habitait Zola, il avait été contacté par les antidreyfusards lui demandant de boucher la cheminée de la chambre de l'écrivain. Il avait été payé pour exécuter ce méfait. Donc Zola a bien été assassiné. Mon grand-père a transmis cette histoire à tous ses amis zoliens et j'ai fait de même toute ma vie.'{{hairspace}} |trans-quote=Brigitte Émile-Zola agrees with Mr. Pagès. "I learned about it at the age of 8 from my grandfather, Dr. Jacques Émile-Zola, son of Émile Zola, who raised me. In 1952, a man came to my grandfather's house to give him information about his father's death. He said that he had been present with a friend in his last moments. The friend confessed to him that when he was working on a building near the one where Zola lived, he was contacted by the antidreyfusards, who asked him to plug the chimney of the writer's room. He was paid to carry out the misdeed. So Zola was indeed murdered. My grandfather passed on this story to all his Zola friends and I have done the same all my life."}}</ref>