New-York tribune., 1886-04-25
TWO REALISTS.
ZOLAS MATERIALISM AND TOLSToIS AS
pIRATl0N.

1,uryRE. Par FurrE ZoLA Paris: O. Cbarpentier et
Gle New York: W. H. jenkins; r. W ~" cnn,o
Tvs COsAOTES Souvenirs do Sebastopol COME
LION ToisTor Paris: Hachette et |ie' NOV" i''A
W. Il. Jenkins
There is in Zola's last story the material ior
much better book. The central conception Is 'na'
Of Young artist who has become saturated WIN
In. theories of the plein air school; who revoits
against the accepted canons of art; vino w'tn
mnch power OF imagination Unites feebleness OF
execntion which illustrates his ambition, condemns
him 70 produce monstrosities which only excite
ridicule and gradually brings him to ruin ana
dcsnair Tho career Of this incomplete genius Is SET
forth with caro- and skill. The character oil the
man is snbtly conceived and clearly interpreted
The psychologic analysis is keen and deep. lno
situation has originality. The unconscious per-
yersity with which the painter, while desperately
endeayoring to be true TO nature. continues 70
evolve works full Of grotesoue discDrds, repeliant
tones and audacious solecisms, is sklfGlly repre-
sented But in spite Of these merits, and III spite
also of an apparent effort TO reach higher plane Vi
thought and action. there is about the book the
faint which unhappy distinguishes all Loias
work.
That this should he so is easily explained. San
doz. an author who appears in the story is made
the exponent of Xola's own theories. lie complains
of the bitterness of his critics, who cannot compre
hend tho cathclci.y of his enterprise, his deter
mination to represent life as whole lie
universal, which proceeds from one end OF
animalty to tine other, without high or low, with
ont beanty or ugliness" lie claims the right to say
and to describe everything. He asserts that there
are abomnable words which ara necessary. Ana
he concludes with language which it is lmross'ple
TO translate, bnt which Is plea for the Glorlhca
tion of the lowest instincts and passions Now
fiction so regarded is not merely earthly and
II. Ill, Inri 10 NOT a
from which morality is necessarily cxcluded 1t is
n fiction dominated by vice. We can conceive OF
n fiction rejecting Christianity. We can conceive
of n fiction rcverting to Paganism. But the fiction
of Zola is neither of these. Between the ethics OF
Marcus Aurelius and the ethics of Christianity the
distance Is comparatively short. between the
ethics OF Marcns Anrelius and the ethics of Zo!a
there is measnrcless gulf. The cult Of the gods OF
Greece was elevated by poetry. The cnlt OF
modern Realism la'Zola is dobased by the elimi'
nation of every pure and bracing thought every
tendency toward life less gnoblc than that OF
the beasts that perish.
II IL the ambition of Zola to persuade the world
that tho mantle of Balzac has fallen upon his
shoulders There is a relation between him and
Bazac but it is the relation of Mr.. Hyde to Dr.
.Jekyll in Robert Louis Stevensons story Just as
HYDE was the incarnation Of all the evil qualities
Of Jekyl so Ioa is the incarnation OF ali the evil
qualities of Bszac. In the philosophy OF the
Upanish1ds n strange doctrine is laid down. IL Is
10 the effect that the evil that men do lives after
them in n different sense from Shakcspeare's;
that the vices which deform this life return to
plague those who yield to them, in the next
incarnation: and that those vices in the second
life dominate the man and become "whips to
scourge him." SO it might bc fancied that the
blot of Balzac's literary work bad expanded in tins
other life-this Zola--until it dominated the mans
career: until his talent, bis ambition, his energies
were all subordinated TO il. Balzac liked the
eccentric He deli q ted N the evolution of wicked
men ard women But the wickcdness of his
villains was idcaize1 by the intellectual vigor he
impartcd to them. Zoia does rot 60 out of his way
10 create monsters Of niquity, hut he besmears all
his characters with the foul mud of Paris; he
lavishes upon every picture of life the same evil
essence of the cutters and the slnms.
In Bazac tho revolving is, as in real life, but an
incident With Xola IT is nearly everything. lie
cannot describe circle of young artists scuptors,
writers, without giving such hnIs or details con
ccrnug their pr vate life cOmpels the inference
that they are all Ircdeemable blackgnards. And
with few exceptions the of his stories are rs
bad as the men. The heroine Of f" LNuvre is a
fair cxanple of his best e1or,s in this direction.
Tho presumption is that Inc intended Christine to
I've an innately pure girl In eject she is nothing of
born without any moral sense whatever As to his
Intentionally bad women, such as Mathilde it is
npossble 70 discuss them at all. All through his
books this dominant tone runs. If he escapes it
for II time if be reaches nO higher sphere 1t is
| only 10 return presently TO the old level. The
general effect is to produce upon sane minds an I'M
/ preston similar to that which ClaudOs imprcs
sioni,t" pictures produced upon the Salon jury and
| the public This feeling is analogous 80 the
rcvulsion experienced by those who were brought
| in contact with " Mr.. Hyde" 1t is tho feeling
which unmxed evil must always create in healthy
and normal constitutions.
Zoa began by claiming for the ugly and the OWL
in lie equal representation with the good and the
beautiful lie has ended by relegatiug the latter
| 10 comparative ohso drity, and apotheosizng the
! former. Healthy thought and action are OH suffer
ance with him. The morbid alone obtains his
respect and attention If the natural and social
| history of tho ROugon- Macquart family really rep
resented faithfully the moral and social condition
of tho French people, there wound DC 10 escape
! from the conclusion that corrupt and yirious
race was doomed to speedy extinction from the
effects of its own proheacy. But no society 50
disOrganized, infected cOnld cOhere, and Iola's
pictures are injurious distortions and calumnies
lis work hereafter may indeed be contemplated
with some curiosity and Interest as a study in
| morbid pathology, aud it may help the philOs-
Cphers of the future 10 mlsnterprct the latter half
OF the nineteenth century but a contribution TO
current literature, as an addition TO human docu-
ments OF any value il has serious position; and
it is only not misrhioyous in tho highest degree
because, like excessive dose of poison its lethal
action is prevented by the revolt of the system
| against it,
II is relief to pass from lola to Tolsoi. The
latter also is a Realist, but of how different a
kind Both seek the truth bat while the one
pursues his quest only in the sOrdidly material,
STOPPING 20 low that the sky is shut out from him.
the other walks erect, his vision embracing the
upper air as well the things OF earth. At the end
of his first sketch of the Siege of Sebastopol,
81 ia hon ~