The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-07-11
lola AND HIS CRITICS
HIS LATEST NOVEL IS A VIGOROUS
FIGHT AGAINST THEM.
Excerpts from the Volume show His
Ambition and Ability Is Greater
than His Traducers.
New York Herald.

Campagne" Emile lola conducts a cam
pagn, offensive and defensive, against his
critics. His chief grievances are that he
has been falsely charged with plagiarism,
that he has been cruelty attacked by meth
DDS which are outside of the legitimate
province of criticism, that he has been I'M
justly accused7of counting the favor of the
French Academy, and that. having
preached in over a score of volumes the
gospel of love for animals, ne has aston
ished an ignorant world by what it as
sumes to be a suddenly developed affection
for the lower creation.
The charge of plagiarism has been raised
against his recent novel of Rome" He as
sumes the attitude of one who. from his
full acquaintance with the meanness of a
certain portion of humanity, had long ex-
pected the attack He begins by calling
names Wherefore, he asks, should name
my accuser? He is envy and impotence
the mediocre paper scratcher who bores
the strong, the rat of the library who seeks
to degrade the fecund," and he concludes
his very last paragraph by saying: His
name is bad faith stupidity Let US
leave him to his nothingness. But it is
only the name that he thus condemns to
nOthingness. The work of this nonentity
AC Va ass 1OA III 1uIO the puDllE lBHl OIL Qdy
to load it with reproaches
All, to annoy for the mere delight of an
noylng TO spit upon book for the pleas
ure of sullXing it; to say to ones self: You,
you are lllustrlouS; you sell your books;
you weary me. L am going to foul your
work and dance a cannibal dance around
it Not even to have at heart some fine,
even though unjust, passion as a thinker
ana an artist but to attack a book, basely.
dirtylike, like a -. which fastens itself
upon the vermin of a lion To make an
assassin of ones self, to seize the occasion
TO choose the hour and the post in the cor
ner OF the literary wood, to waylay your
| man, and to plant knife into his back on
the very day when one imagines that the
wound will be poisoned and mortal.
such IS the pretty role that this gentle
man has assumed. Happily, although the
assassn's intention be here, the sort of
wounds he infiicts are those which are the
glory and the health of the brave. Assassi-
nate! assassinate! Oh. yes impotent and
enyious ones you merely keep us in breath
1t seems. according to M Zola, that this
man, coming out ] know not from what
school where they know everything" has
made the great discovery that the author
had got hold Of a compilation about the
Vatican, that he md ak N notes from it.
and and that he had used these notes in writing
Now, NJ: lola acknowledges that he has
READ read the book in question Its exact title
The Vatican, the Popes ara Clvllization."
But he explains that il is only one of a hun
dred volumes which he hal read and assm-
hated In order TO qualify himself for the
Is not that be asks. entirely natural? He
is novelist 1t is not his function to know
everything. Consequently, whcN he APP
proaches a new subject there IS or'v one
thlng Tor him to do, and that is to study it.
10 acquire that special knowledge " hicH he
needs IN order - treat it accurately. Aid
1t is not necessary TO- 4 novelist to be ON
niscent. to make Few discoveries 10 ex-
haust the truths that are already known,
out simply TO know on what ground he Is
standing to build Ipon 1t a n=w hypothesis.
lola DEFINES HIS MISSION
My function is to create a new life in
all the elements which 1 have drawn from
various sources; my business is simply to
| learn; then if have been able to assemble
| around the subject all which floats about in
the air Of the period, if 1 have known how
| to grasp, to sum up and to recreate things
and beings in order to formulate from them
the hypothesis of tomorrow to announce
the future, 1 am content. Have I given
my own breath to my characters? Have L
put under the sun beings of flesh and blood
| as eternal as man? If so, my task is done
and 1t matters little where l have gathered
the material
1T would require many pages merely to
| name the titles of the books that l have
read for the construction of my novel
! Rome. Nor have L simply availed myself
| of books. Were l to mention the docu-
ments furnished by witnesses, what 1 might
call oral documents, we would never finish
| For example, on my third visit to the Pala-
tine 1 had the good fortune and the honor
| to be accompanied by our great painter
| Hebert and by M. Bermabel, who both
gave me most useful notes. 1t was with
Hebert that 1 visited the Sistine Chapel, the
rooms of Raphael and the Museum of An
| tiquities. But here | STOP 1t would GER
| tinly be indiscreet to name all the officials
who so cheerfuly put themselves at my
| disposition, the chiefs of all kinds who have
| taken pains to instruct me themselves, the
| houses in Rome at which I have been re-
| ceived, all the good will and kindly feeling
! which enabled me in five weeks of tremen-
dous work to achieve the most far-reaching
| inquiries.
"In fine" says NJ lola, when a gentle
| man brings against me the accusation of
| being plagiarist, what can do but shrug
| my shoulders? | have already passed more
than thirty years of my life in creating,
| and the children are there more than
| thousand Of them, all emanating from me,
! a whole world of persons and facts. Have
not already sufficiently proved my Virility
as a creator of men? IS not my family vast
! enough to justify me in laughing when l
! am accused of stealing the children of
| otherS?'
M. lola concludes. in a magnificent burst
of scorn, Come, come, little man; you may
say that l have need of everything and
| that l assimilate everything, but you will
| never succeed in making any one believe
| that my myriads of children are not my
| own"
He returns to the attack in another es-
say. Osteneib!y, this is a reply to the ac-
| cusation of the critics that NJ. lola has
attempted to curb their liberty of thought
| and OF expression, that he is foolish
enough to Vince before perfectly legitimate
| attacks.
In return he cannot help barking back
| to the old subject 1t Is not the attack be-
| fore which he WINGED, he explains, but the
method in which it was made. 1t appears
that within the criticism which CALLED him
| there was slyly hidden a new charge of
! plagiarism. The article appeared ON May "a
| The election to the French Academy at
| which lola was a candidate, occurred four
| days later. So there was just time enough
| insists M. Zola. for the poison to act If
! 1t was poured out by skillful hand.
| the very eve of the vote. How well planned
! was this to cast trouble into the minds of
! hesitating electors. And /, poor simpleton
| had been expecting a legitimate criticism.
| Certainly, if the gentleman had been dis
| cussing my methods of work nothing would
have been more just. One naturally has the
| right to discuss q method of work and to
| find 1t wrong. But the entire tendency of
! the article was to give the impression that
| my book was made up only of borrowings
a full understanding Of the infamous
| literary crime which plagiarism is con-
sidered nowadays.
LIKE AN ASSASSIN
us this criticsm?' cries NJ lola us it
tention show forth in every line, as l have
| already said? / will make no mention of
the absurdites, the follies which this gem
tleman ascribes to me, all taken from GER
tain famous newspaper interviews where l
have been regularly made to say things
Rome and about the Pope and about nv
method of learning back-stairs gossip by
giving drinks to servants. Is IT. allowable