ABSTRACT
On April 2, 1870, Zola turned thirty. He was again making enough money to live fairly comfortably and could reasonably expect to see his income go on rising thanks to the profits he hoped to reap from his books. The time had come to put his affairs in order. For over five years, Alexandrine and he had been living together, but they had not yet been married. At ten o'clock on the morning of Tuesday, May 31, in the mairie of the 17th arrondissement, they were legally wed. Roux, Cézanne, Alexis, and Solari witnessed the ceremony. The announcement cards send out by Zola's mother snobbishly omitted the bride's plebeian first name, Gabrielle.
