Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-11-27
i...i
!. LITERATURE AND LIFE ]
/. J,
Z

A. j. N.

In recent issue of the Argonaut is a
strong editorial on "Zola, the Apostle
of Smut" While as a rule we adhere
to the adage, ito speak no Ill of the
Dead" we have too great a respect for
the Argonaut's editorial opinions. and
in this case too strong them s. my
sentiments too" feeling, to condemn
this frank and courageous estimate of
an author whom the public press, since
his death, has been all too ready to
glorify.
The Argonaut declares that lola was
neither an artist nor a realfst in the
true sense, and institutes a comparison
between his work and that of Maupas-
SAINT, the latter a genuine realist, who
wrote exactly what he saw, as he saw
II, and when he saw it," He points out
that Zola's work was mostly subjective
or worked out of his inner conscious
ness from information gotten second
hand. That he was "a typical French
bourgeois, born in bourgeois environ
ment and of bourgeois parents-a mar
row. calculating, sordid person, unven
turesome, unromantic. with a DISPOSE
ton to hoard money as his peasant an
cestry had put it away in grimy stock
ings" That he soon married female
bourgeois after his own kind, with no
lawless loves ever disturbing the me-
thodical heart which beat beneath his
immaculate shirt front" That he
"crammed" for his scenes and episodes
with the gossip and slang of the low
dens by fraternizing with retired
FOUNDERS" just long enough to listen
to their tall stories" That as he
crammed for the low life of the boule-
wards in Mana" and "LAssommoir,"
so he crammed for all his characters,
and so he crammed for the life of the
great cities in two of his trilogy.
Rome" Paris" "Lourdes." with as
founding naivete (says the critic) he
told of having gone for six weeks to
study Rome!"
After a severe arraignment Of Zola's
work, our critic asks the question, why
the Frenchman so persistently lugged
filth into his books, often dragging in
"lecherous episodes by the ears and
TAIL" so to speak, and answers, that ii
was to advertise himself and sell his
wears, and concludes thus: "Zola was
the greatest literary advertiser of this
notoriety and money, and won BOTH OF
late years the sale of his books had
been waning, and he determined to re-
vive them by stupendous advertise
ment, hence his espousal Of the cause Of
Captain Dreyfus, and Zolas Dreyfus
'ad' was the biggest .ad' of all"
AS a matter of fact, lola spent but
three weeks in Rome collecting mate
rial for the first book in his trilogy.
Says one authority who knew him.
"He stayed for only three weeks, but
went everywhere, taking copious notes
of all he saw, even to the Quirinal.
where he held conversation with the
king and queen. Pressure was brought
to bear upon the holy father to grant
him an audience, but TO no purpose
will not receive an enemy of the
church, said the aged Leo. lola
nothing daunted. disguised as a pelerin,
solicited the services of one of the pa
pal guards, and was introduced into the
vatican. where he managed to exchange
a few words with the pope"
The Argonaut, however, goes too far
in denying realism to Zola. There is no
doubt that the bourgeois environment
into which he was born and compelled
to pass his early years brought him
into frequent contact with much of the
life he portrays in his work. Says the
Paris correspondent of the New York
Times: "Meley, Zolas father-in-law,
died an alcoholic lunatic, and supplied,
doubtless, those lurid details of habit
ual drunkenness which lola, later,
made such admirable use of in his great