A Veritable Murder: Émile Zola, His Friend Paul Cézanne, and His Book L'Œuvre

A close reading of Émile Zola's L'Œuvre, whose protagonist is modeled on his childhood friend, Paul Cézanne, reveals that the novel, long held responsible for the acute demise of their relationship, is rather an unwitting chronicle of its slow decline. Considered alongside the Cézanne-Zola correspondence and set in the context of historical and biographical data, L'Œuvre Illuminates a complex and important relationship, bringing into sharp focus the tension between the idealizing mirroring that promotes creativity and the competitive aggression that threatens it.