Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-03-31
ZOLA,s FEARFUL MANUSCRIPT.
How the French Realistic Author Tor
ments the Printers,

How the French Realistic Author Tor
ments the Printers.
The Vienna Allgemei71e Zeita171g
publishes an interesting article by
Ernst Zeigler, who evidently writes
with personal knowledge, on lola as a
literary worker. The article might,
perhaps, be well named "Zola as a
Printers Tormentor"
'Zola writes everything himself; he
never has secretary for his extensive
correspondence. He even seals his
wrappers and addresses them when he
sends his friends brochures or his
translators material. He also writes
his literary manuscript himself. Out
OF it the printers compose what are
called 'placards' pages with
four gigantic columns of text. These
are sent to the author carefully revised
and free from errors, and then lola
begins to correct. He fills the wide
margin all round with hundreds of
marks and letters; ink-lines cut
through the text, thin threads run
crossways and diagonally, entwining
Like lasso a sentence scrubbed in an
open space; scarcely line Is exempted
from the hieroglyphics of the master.
Here note of Interrogation must
make room for one of exclamation;
here semicolon is changed into full
point; comma before or after the ct
effectively divides phrase; participates
are replaced by adjectives; substan-
tives take the place of pronouns; re-
dundant adverbs must also disappear;
the past definite is substituted for the
imperfect; more descriptive words
supply the place of tame ones; for an
expression repeated in five or six pages
synonym is introduced; whole phrases
are remodeled, sentences are condensed
into two or three words, and even half
columns are ruthlessly consigned at
once into the compositor's type-case.
1t must be bitter task to break up
the print again, but there is no help
for it. The extra fees charged else
where on authors for corrections are
not known; nobody complains; author
common endeavor after perfection.
After such a corrected text the Paris
journal. prints, and the translations
are done in exactly the same way
In the newspaper print the publish
er sees his work step nearer the book
form. But the process of alteration is
still unfinished, and lola is not the
man to watch this process with his
hands in his pockets. He now per-
ceives in his work thousand things
which escaped him before, and he
begins anew to correct more indus
triously and more relentlessly than be-
fore. He makes ravages on the text,
refining and touching up the periods,
reconstructing whole pages, and sprink-
ling column after column with new i'm
provements. 'The feuilleton is for me
only first draught,' he once wrote to
me. At last comes the day on which
the publisher, Charpentier, receives
the last bon-a-tirer; the new work is
ready; lola will never more withdraw
anything from it, and he can now
rest"
rest, for we are told that he sits down
at once to sketch new work directly
the one last revised has left his hands.
ut is seldom that lola does not re-
ceive the proceeds of a new work be-
fore the original manuscript leaves his
hands" The novel is, however, ap-
pearing regularly all the while. Ger
minal began in the papers Nov. % of
1884, and Zola only finished his work
in the following January. 'L'Guvre ,
began Dec. %, and lola writes to-day
that he fears he will not be able to put
the word End after the last chapter
before the middle of February. One
may picture to himself the circum-
stances under which such a work is
produced. Day after day the Paris
feuilleton devours from three to four
| hundred lines. The printer sends new
placards to Zola's house, waits for
the corrections; the translators need
material; the publisher is importunate,
for he must have the long-detained
bons-a-t irer, since on the day on which
the last feuilleton appears the book
must be in the market So, harassed
and tormented, Zola corrects again,
and at the same time writes the last
quarter of his romance. At this time
he neglects all business affairs, forgets
who has sent him money, and why,
while heaps of unanswered correspond
ence strew his table. In the few letters
which he absolutely must write
phrase always occurs which in its
stereotype repetition admirably ex-
presses the condition of the authors
mind namely, the cry of anguish, Je
suis 81 bouscule.
A Freak of Vegetation.
In the mountains of Venezuela grows