“A Love Episode”, Une page d'amour is the eighth novel in the Rougon-Macquart series by Émile Zola, set among the petite bourgeoisie in Second Empire suburban Paris. It was first serialized between December 11, 1877, and April 4, 1878, in Le Bien public, before being published in novel form by Charpentier in April 1878. The central character of the novel is Hélène Grandjean née Mouret (b. 1824), first introduced briefly in La fortune des Rougon. Hélène is the daughter of Ursule Mouret née Macquart, the illegitimate daughter of Adelaïde Fouque (Tante Dide), the ancestress of the Rougon-Macquart family. Hélène's brothers are François Mouret, the central character of La conquête de Plassans, and Silvère Mouret, whose story is told in La fortune des Rougon. (Excerpt from Wikipedia)
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola; 2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was a French novelist, playwright, journalist, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalisation of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline "J'accuse". Zola was nominated for the first and second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 and 1902. (Wikipedia)