New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-08-02
EMILE ZOLA.
HOW HE WORKS AND PLAYS.

Emile Zola in a recent conversation with
correspondent of 1.-The Pail Mall Gazette, gave
many details concerning his literary methods. de
had always been very methodlca, ne saiu' Hiii'S
believing in regular work.
AT my house in Medan, in my study, J nave
carved III letters OF gold over my ihah. e o
have stuck TO all my life-l may say that nav
conscienousy all these years Ny faith Is 'h nhe
first essential for the production OF BOOK; work ark
rapidly dashed off The creation of book taxes
much trouble and exacts actual pains. when i
enlv at most. general idea of subject, and
the first thing that do is to prep@fe !, hand
because ideas only come to me when am wrtlng
] can't think while sitting idle | write as though ,
the scenes, the incidents. The ebauche or sketch'
is n;s, Kind Of o Sss ensh Se goye Which is to
spring from IT, then draw out the plan OF lne
scenario Then each character is studied in detail;
the scenes that are to be described are vl S1
Thus for La Curee spent long days IN STUDYING
the description of the carriages described. inter
viewing several leading carriage Dulldefs. fOr
Saccard's no el spent hours outside the hotel OF
NJ Mener in the PARE He
in the Jardn DIES Plantes For lie Yer nentre De de
haps one OF the books next to La Debacle which
exacted the most preliminary labor was La Faute
take notes from mountains Of religious books and
for which attended mass over and over again al
the little church of Saine- Marie IN Baugnoiies.
'LAssommor' also gave a great deal OF trouble.
first in regard to the plot and secondly IN the way
of writing it, Where the author expresses himself
it is in the language OF the people whose lives are
describe in the Sook was sa eTa sg
that j found the word 'assommoir, meaning
sr6nsht me real had sold the right Of
publishing it in serial form to democratic news
p wbP;ch the editor was honest enough to pay me in
entire although he was forced TO interrupt the pub
Iicatjon of a work which raised perfect storm
II was described deliberate insult to the peo-
at a
review called La RePublique des Lettres' came
story and paid 1000 francs for the permission to
do so. The story was greatly discussed My
myself did not expect to it so beyond tenth
edition
THE GREATEST SUCCESSES.
".Nana' was tho biggest success Of the whole
SEA IN exen Greater quantities All La Debace
! vince when think of all the work 1t cost me. No
book ever gave me so much trouble First Of al
there was the material TO be got together; but
that was childs play compared TO the task Oh con
that for every page wrote could have written
ten Dr Pascal on which am at present int e sho
least trouble, and which have taken most pleas
ure in writing In the isi plaza That when write
Fins at the bottom OF that book shall nave re-
allied an ambition which cInceNeb b oIJe Meas
DR. Pascal because through Dr. Pascal as my my
n 5 sh@ ana y a
accusation that people delight to bring asast me me
argument that am convicted out of my WRITINGS
OF being sceptc and misanthrope. on the con
nary shall prove that have great faith IN 'he
future OF humanity ii only the terrible question oI
neredity, which indeed makes the children pear
tne sins OF their fathers be overcome Ivy a
process OF logical selection. If may use the WORD
union OF the sexes
Low AND SURE
DAY after day during all these years have reg
ularly devoted three to four hours OF my mornings
to my task on the Rougon- Macquart series From
four to six pages Of manuscript. of the size of a
production write slowly AID with some difficulty
and always think out my sen.,1ccs So Ga, efuly
that there are few. If any. tito = in my man
uscript should say that fifteen hundred words
is my daily output IL is rot NUN. but ..nr::iler
what that makes at the end ~ the year V,cr |
have done what l consider fair daily eon',,tu-
tion / throw down my pen. even II be in the mid
&ie ~ n sentence, but the subject Is much in my
mind that the next morning l car resume the
thread Of my composition, even without reading