La Bête humaine de Lombroso

It is a commonplace that La Bête humaine bears witness to the influence of the first criminological theories on the work of Émile Zola. However, the relationship between the novel published in 1890 and the work of the Italian Positivist School – notably Cesare Lombroso’s L’Homme criminel (1876) – is more complex. An analysis of these works sheds light on the strategy implemented by the first criminologists to confer legitimacy on their discourse in the face of their legal opponents.