French novelist Emile Zola, noted for his championship of the Naturalist novel, has been one of the most adapted authors in world literature. There have been approximately 80 film adaptations of his late 19th century novels and short stories, many of which occurred during the silent era of international film production (1895-1927). While the aesthetic elements of Zola's fiction continue to appeal to international cinema, the author's thematic naturalism and his "scientific methodology" have provided an ideological framework that incorporates art, science and history into the many cinematic adaptations of his work.

This collection of essays, contributed by scholars of French literature and film, explores the dynamic relationship between Zola's fiction and its film adaptations, examining critically significant cinematic adaptations of Zola's novels from a variety of theoretical and interdisciplinary perspectives. The 13 essays discuss the adaptation of Zola's works within the limitations of the silent cinema; the challenges posed by film censorship and the notoriety of the author's naturalist text; the ideological inflection given to Zola's working class narratives; and Zola's representation of women. Zola's works are placed within their respective historical contexts, as the essays address encoded anti-Nazi sentiment in films produced under the German occupation of France during World War II and the French Communist Party's reception of the filmic adaptation of Germinal. Other adapted works addressed in these chapters include La Terre, Nana, La Bete humaine, Au Bonheur des Dames, Therese Raquin, Gervaise and Pot-Bouille.