Rare set 32 plates caricaturing EMILE ZOLA (1840-1902), French novelist, journalist, playwright, and best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism. The individual hand-colored plates, each 7 x 10 in., are contained in the set 'Zola 32 Caricatures de Lebourgeois' (Paris: E. Bernard et Cie.), 1898, contained in a gilt-embossed brown faux leather folder. The corner is bumped a bit. The scenes place Zola in the predicaments explored in his writings, such as the novels 'Germinal' and 'Nana', or involved in the causes about which he was passionate, such as the unjust court martial for treason of Jewish military officer, Alfred Dreyfus. A few of the images bear anti-Semitic caricatures as well. Fine condition.