Brian Nelson is a professor emeritus of French Studies at Monash University, Melbourne, and editor of the Australian Journal of French Studies. Nelson graduated with an undergraduate degree from Cambridge University and did postgraduate work at Oxford University where he obtained his D.Phil. in 1979. Before going to Monash he taught one year in Paris and several years at the University of Wales Aberystwyth. In 1986, he became professor at Monash and retired in 2008. Nelson taught modern French literature and cultural studies on topics such as Paris and "The Female Body", as well as translation studies. In addition to a number of monographs including Zola and the Bourgeoisie and �mile Zola: A Selective and Analytical Bibliography, he has made a number of modern translations of �mile Zola for the Oxford World's Classics series. About these translations, Nelson said: My aim as a translator is to transform Zola's prose into a work of art that approaches the original, that is, is faithful to the spirit of the original. 

September 29th, 1946 in (Age 77)