Émile François Zola (French pronunciation: [emil z??la]) (2 April 1840 - 29 September 1902) was an influential French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism. More than half of Zola's novels were part of a set of twenty novels about a family under the Second Empire collectively known as Les Rougon-Macquart.

L'Assommoir (1877) is the seventh novel in the series. Usually considered one of Zola's masterpieces, the novel-a harsh and uncompromising study of alcoholism and poverty in the working-class districts of Paris-was a huge commercial success and established Zola's fame and reputation throughout France and the world. (Summary edited from Wikipedia)