The Death of Olivier Becaille

Émile Zola’s The Death of Olivier Becaille is irresistible. Like the best of Poe, it tells its story with supreme suspense.

Considered one of Zola's masterworks, The Death was a huge commercial success and helped establish Zola's fame and reputation throughout France and the world.

A beautiful but bone-chilling story, Olivier Becaille begins with every hope of making a success of life with his wife Marguerite, only to find himself being buried alive—having been declared dead by a local medical doctor.

Olivier, unable to move or speak, watches and listens as funeral arrangements are made.

Then they close his eyes…

ÉMILE ZOLA (1840 –1902) was a French writer, a major figure of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of the modern novel. Zola was nominated for both the first and second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 and 1902.