Z is for the end of the A-Z Challenge
Z is for…
ZANI an Italian clown, a stock character – this is where the word zany comes from…
Z is for…
ZEITGEIST – time ghost in German – the fashions, the trends and the commanding ideas that capture the essence of a specific period in time.
Z is for…
ZEUGMA a literary device that uses a single verb to connect two different objects when the verb should really only refer to one but by making the connection some special idea or image is created.
That’s a complicated explanation for something quite simple – here’s a few examples:
Shakespeare’s Henry V: “Kill the boys and the luggage.”
Benjamin Franklin: “If we don’t hang together, we shall hang separately!”
Charles Dickens: “She looked at the object with suspicion and a magnifying glass.”
and Z is for the writer
EMILE ZOLA
a brilliant 19th century French writer who wrote about every class in society with passion and warmth and great clarity.My favourite novels are L’Assommoir written in 1877 and Germinal in 1885 but probably his greatest achievement was not a work of fiction.
When the French intelligence discovered that military secrets were being passed to Germany they prosecuted Captain Alfred Dreyfus , despite the lack of evidence. He was a convenient scapegoat because he was Jewish.
Émile Zola (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Zola was at the height of his literary career when he published “J’accuse“, condemning the authorities for what they did. Zola wanted to be prosecuted for libel because he thought it would be a way of revealing the deep seated antisemitism that created a miscarriage of justice. Rather than be imprisoned he sought refuge in England. Later, when he returned to Paris he died of carbon monoxide poisoning – many still believe that his enemies within the French government were responsible…
4 comments on “Z is for the end of the A-Z Challenge”
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A Good Confession
"Unputdownable" Miriam Stoppard
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 
Gosh you are so well read Bridget but why am I surprised, puts my Zebra to shame, but then ‘it takes all sorts to make a world’ Hope your own novel is progressing well. Love Ann
Ahh but your zebra is lovely!!!!
You did an incredible job finding lots of “Z” things…including a writer and a literary device. I’m thoroughly impressed and astonished. 🙂
All down to the power of Google plus I fell in love with Zola a long time ago when my friend who turned into my boyfriend and then my husband lent me Germinal when I worked on an international work camp in the south of France (we weren’t exploited like the French miners I hasten to add…)