The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-07-07
ZoLA'S LATEST NOVEL.
Boston Transcript.

When Emile Zola published the genealogical tree of the Rougon-Mac- quart family fron;ispiece to the ne Page d.Amour (rS7S) he wrote in the preface 10 that work
 Iregre, ,ha, I did not publish the tree iu the trst volume oi the series. so as to show my whole plan a, once. Were 1 to delay do iag so longer should be accused ia the end of having made it up as aa aiter;houghi. II Is high tune 10 state that II Was drawn up n iis present shapr n isas. before had written single ;nc S.nee tSss have been filing out ihc | ne to which have committed ms self. thc genealogical trce iHAFS3as ea; tae ohicf outlines Tor ne. .hd have allowed inyse.i to s@erVe neither io tht right nol ts the .e:t. ma5; ie.4sN T stsci'T |; .s at oaee t4y strength and m Icss.ai9r.
 One even regrets tha, NJ Loia Las no, printed this interesting tam.ly tree IF every volume of the -Macquar, series: l, would not only have helped the reader to knos more precisely the place Tn the family occupied by the hero or heroine of each novel. but II would have served to keep the fact constantly present before his mind tha, each separate novel IS but part of a complex whole. but one page in that Natural and social history of family and the second Elm pire," to the writing of which Zola has been devoting his bes, energies for the last fifteen years. and whieh it probably will take him as many years more to complete. The part which the principle of heredity plays in the Rougon-Mac- quart novels IS important, and it is much to be desired that the readers should feel this. For, if this element is forgotten. much of the character drawing in the several novels must, of necessity, seem incomplete and vague. and many of the developments of character Ill accounted for, or merely wilful.
 ''Au Bonheur des Danes" the lates, novel in the series. is the immediate se- quel to Pot-Bouille" Octave Mouret. who. although prominent parsonage, hardly rose to the importance of hero. in the latter, now appears as the leading male character. Let us cast brief glance at his pedigree.
 Octave Mouret is the eides; son of Francois Moure, and hls cousin Marthe Roagon Vide La Coaque,e de Pas sans the father being :he son of Ur- sule Mac quart tlaG Inter of Adelaide fouque by old Mao4aart. the poacher and smuggler), and the mother of ,he daughter of Pierre Rouson tonly son of Adelaide EouGue by her frs; husband. old Rougon, the gardener of fiassansl i7'ide La Fortune des kougors -. Thus Octave Mouret has the Rougon and the Macquart blood in his veins in equal pro- portions. He is indeed the flower of the Mouret branch of the family: the only one of three children untouched by the streak of insanity which both his father and his mother inherited from old Ade- laide Fouque, and which appeared dis tinctly enough in his brother Serge and his sister Desiree 7'iat La Fau,e de fAbbe Mouret l. Bu,. if free from the Fouque insanity. Octave inher:,s all the rapacious appetite of both the Rougons and the Macquarts, the more purely sen- sual element m the Macquar blood be- ing cured by the ambition. the practical insight. the power of adapting means to ends. which characterize the Rougons and which qualities show themselves as espe- cially emphasized after the second rener- ation by the spin, of indefatiga5le pertI- nacity inherited from Feliciie puech wife oi Pierre Rougon. II o-taye show him. self to be good deal of a Macquar; in Pot-Bou.lle. in e'Au Bonheur des Danes he $ a RoGgon ,o the back bone.
 l. is especially interesting Q compare this brilliant. ea;erprisias and inventive Octave wi:h his uncle Aris'ide Saocard f5IGe .' L. Cgree Aris,ide Saceard the furious spectator in real estate n bubble stock companies and what not. whose very assumption of the name ot Saccard was in itself money speeula- ton for his real name was Rougon-is laeonically described on his leaf of the family tree as showing moral prepon- derance of the father (Pierre Rougonl. and physical resemblace of the mother (Felicite Puecel Ambition of the mother spoiled by the appetite of the father.' Arisiide Saecard and Octave Mouret have several striking points of re- semblance. Ambition is the main char acteristic of both men they both aim at success, pure and simple, success for its own sake both are about equally un- scrupulous by nature, and equally daring Tn their enterprise both are indefatigable workers, true men of iron in their power of work. But Saccard entirely lacks balance; his furious greediness of nature continually makes him lose his head business in,oxicates him. and h,s whole career Is one de!.yfav fHveHs of spccula- HUH HI i4sC @AVoAcGCss Po>ss1lc 04lC-AADlls He is wh.rled along by the vortex into which he has plunged. and although mil lions pass in a, one pocke, ard a; the other. he Is stranded a, iAs;. as poor a. when he played for his h.s: s,ak>. D., Octave Moare, has all the ba'a-ce of character that S4cczrd lacks. He has q true genius for business Where the uncle's unscrupuloGsness leads him 70 prefer cheating 10 any above-ooard trans action, the nephew sees clearly eaoagh