The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-27
THE HATRED FOR zOLA
COMES FROM MERCILEss EXPOSURE
OF INCOMPETENT OFFICERS.
Life Work Of Fearless Warfare on
In High and Low Places.

army III Il Way tnaL WOuld raise a. SloFIt
and make him world of enemies. "Lo
Soldat' never made its appearance. Its
place was probably taken by lie Debacle.'
in which the army is handled with no gentle
touch. But that work, while confirming the
authors prejudice against epaulet wear
ers, did not satiate his enmity against the
caste which has been such a curse 10
France. 1t was more recent publications
which melted the government to prosecute
the publicist for defamation of the army.
Zola is approaching his sixtieth year, and
he has been writing novels for thirty-tive.
But it is only lately that his fiction has
been inspired by purpose His first
novels, Madeline Ferat," "Therese Re-
quin' and the "Conteoia Ninon," were writ
ten for bread. He was desperately poor,
and his pen was so savage that newspaper
proprietors were afraid of him. At crisis
in his career. when his prospects in life
seemed very black indeed an idea occurred
to him. Balzac had won fame and fortune
by a series of novels depicting French mid
die class life, which had appeared under the
title of la Coincide Humane" Flaubert
had improved upon Balzac's realism in
Nine. De Bovary," which, though prose-
cuted by the authorities, had placed him at
the head of French writers of fiction. Feel
ing that his powers OF observation were as
keen as F1aubert's, and that he could ex-
press himself as wildly and as trenchantly.
lola proposed to depict the life of French
men of all classes under the second empire
in a series of twenty novels. The series
was to be called LES Rougon-Macquart,'
and a psychological thread was to run
through them all. showing the heredity Of
instincts, tendencies, vice and crime, and
the way the bent of the human mind is az
fected by surrounding conditions.
A MONSTER CONTRACT.
1t was rather remarkable that pub
Usher was found for so voluminous work
by young man Of thirty, who had up to
that time won no reputation to speak Of
But Lacroix undertook the publication.
When his firm went out of business the
contract was assumed by the great house
of Charpentier, and the whole series saw
the light. Looking at it as it stands the
critic must admit that lola fulfilled his
purpose conscentiously and thoroughly.
Passing over the offenses against good
taste which are found in many of the vol
umes, they present as an aggregate pic
ture of the French people during Napo-
leon HIS reign which is without an equal
in French literature. Whether we consider
or Of the bourgeois class in the 'Bcnheur
des Danes" or of the working class in
"L'Assommior," or of the market people In
the "ventre de Paris" or of railroad hands
in La Bette Humane" or of the miner
class in s'Germinal,' or Of the peasants In
La Terre," 1t is impossible to deny that
the author has done his work truthfuIly,
artiStically, faithfully, honestly, as work.
man who was sworn to perform his task
to the best of his ability.
TO the classic nor to the romantic, nor even
to the realist school, but that he and Flau-
bert were the founders of a new school, to
which he gave the name of naturalist. Sie
described men as he found them things as
he saw them. II they were offensive 1t was
not his fault Was the picture true7 If it
was he was content. 1t was not his busi-
ness to alter 1T to suit the delcacy of per-
sons OF refinement. Paris was slow to ac-
cept his philosophy. When the first vol
un.es appeared French critics, though little
prone to squeamishness. spluttered In rage
They called ZOlaS novels "putrid Htera-
ture," books to be handled with the tongs;
carfcature represented him as a garbage
gatherer going around collecting filth with
his book They said of him--him, lola, the
most moral OF men, who has always led
quiet, modest life in his cottage with his
mother, his wife and his children--that he
without a heart, like Lautier, a beast like
Bee Sale, monster, like Begougne, the
grave digger.
RoGUEs IN WHITE GLOVES.
He received the shower with erect head
and unfinching eye. He is grim man, who
never laughs. He struck back at his Critics
with Ia Curee'' a superb and horrid sat
urnalia OF rogues in white gloves in which
the love thread is an amour between the
heroine and her stepson; and while ParI-
slams We're gazing at the dreadful picture
and wondering whether they were really
like that he followed up the blow with
y In xxI,fcb .as
rect challenge to the working class that
maligner of his country But rail as they
might, Frenchmen had to admit that there
was truth and power In the man which
no other writer possessed. They bought hts
books and asked for more.
In his confidential chats with De Anieis
lola told his Italian friend where the Sc
cret of his strength lay In the moral or
der, he unveils in his character deep feel
lngs which are generally profound secrets
ana are tremblingly whispered through the
window OF the confessional. In tHe material
order he makes us perceive every odor, ev-
cry mayor. every contact. In language, he
heard by ears polite De Amicis in his
graphic Italian way. says that we see the
blood circulating under the skins of Zoas
characters, know the positions In which
they sleep, what they eat, how they dress
and how they undress; we understand the
ours, their most secret appetites, the most
passionate anger Of their language: their
gestures, grimaces. the spots on their liner,
the dirt under their nails. He makes us
leave the perfumed boudoir of Renee with
headache and remain for an hour in q
Workman's shop, in the society of pretty
Elise among pigs heads buried in feIIv
boxes of sardines floating in OIL larded veal
and patties Of liver, depicted in such q nat
ural manner that when you have finished
reaolng you leave the book and go involun-
tarily In search of water to wash your
hands. He was thoroughly conscious of the
influence OF the olfactOry sense on the mind
lie makes us smell the perfume of Nanas
shoulders, the odor of fish I'm the market
mans clothes, the pungent scent of Norman
cheese, the smell of the drunkard's breath
the moldy odor Of Lantier's trunk Before
THIS background circulates varied crowd
or women, corrupt TO the marrow foul
mouthed shopkeepers, cunning bankers
knavish priests, loose street girls. handles
and ruffians letting loose their passionate
the chin in thick and heavy atmosphere.
FIDELITY TO DETAIL
He was the most painstaking and elabo-
rately careful Of writer's. The true secret
of his naturalism was absolute fidelity TO
detail If he had to describe an actress he
went to the theater. studied her from the
front, observed infinitely the paruuet and
boxes, passed behind the scenes, noted
every object In sight assisted at the toilet
in the dressing rooms. When he planned
Coupeau's death from alcoholism he read
library Of works on intemperance, visited
the hospital OF st. Anne and studied the
sufferers from debauch with the rapt atten-
ton OF a physician. Before describing the
paced the streets in which 1t was to occar,
observed the corners and the sigf4s on fha