New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-09-30
EMILE ZOL4.

The death of Emile Zoia removes from french
literature q figure of dubious slgnlncdhce- i
might have been leader in his proIessioi' anu
no doubt many necrologists will refer 10 hiin at
the founder OF school, yet it Is scarcely ''
laureI of the leader that will be placeu upon
his bier. He died in the ranks, noyeilst WHO
contributed much TO the entertainment or lis
countrymen and achieved a considerable vogue
among foreigners. raising up imitators at nome
and abroad but never striking the note which
means true inspiration and reverberates IN inter-
eture long after an authors disappearance from
the scene His noble efforts in the interest of
Drevfus set the world TO thinking new and
friendly things about his character as a man.
It could not change the judgment which was
long ago passed upon his works by most discern
ing readers. and that Judgment is unfaVoraole
to the endurance of his fame.
Had he. indeed, achieved fame? Was IT not
rather a certain adventitious notoriety which
formed his reward? He haCe brains and skill.
He was not without fine emotions. In some or
his later and more deliberately sociological
works especially an intense sympathy for man.
kind is often disclosed He could sorrow with
the unfortunate. he could be indignant against
cruel oppression he could be bitter against
wicked folly and he was unquestionabiy SIN
cere Yet his books fail to kindle the magma
ton or to rouse the reader to high thinking or
noble impulse. This is because the sordid side
Of life and the baser instincts in preoccu-
pied him from beginning TO end. 1t was the
late John Addington Symonds we believe, who
first beheld in lola confirmed idealist, but he
proved this chiefly by showing that the novels
of the Frenchman. while nominally rejecting
life after a realistic method, were really con-
structed with a view to demonstrating some
-
thing like the persistent feeling for spiritual
things which is the unmistakahle mark of the
idealist lola was destitute. at least in so far
as the work he did as a writer was concerned.
In early life he suffered hardships and saw
with his own eyes the Indebtedness of the very
Door The vice of Paris was revealed to him in
ifs lowest depths. He seems to have been con
strained TO paint It, and in his books we breathe
an atmosphere rs sitting as that of the lowest
den in the slums Of modern metropolis. His
admirers protest that he is faithful TO human
nature. that every touch in his canvas Is true
one and that We have no right to question his
material: the truth. they say, is everything. No
doubt: but the truth Zola understood it is the
truth that belongs In police report in book for
socio1ogists. and nowhere else. certainly not
in a novel Moreover while Zoa could paint
vile scene to the life while he could make
sQualor tangible in his pages, he distorted MS
facts by putting them IN the wrong perspective,
by making them appear as if they alone We're
the facts of life. It is bad enough to have
noxious odor waited into ones nostrils. It is
! intoerabe 10 be told that this is the only odOr
to be inhaled in modern society lola, Of course,
! refused to admit that he made this demand
upon his reader, but the fact remains as we
| have stated it.
| No one wants to speak anything but good of
the dead But no one familiar with Zolas liter
ary career can ignore its controlling impulse,
which was one toward the gross and the I'M
clean. When he tried. he did try, upon one
famous occasion to fill his pages with pure air,
he succeeded but at the same time he en-
feebled his pages. It was in the unsavory stew
of bis ambitious series Of novels. Les ROugOn-
Macquart" that he was most himself as an
thor and those books the world VIII willingly
let die Perhaps the "Contes de Ninon" will
survive with some few other productions Of his,
by virtue of their literary power. but not even
al his best does lola promise to be immortal
If lola is long remembered ii will more prob
ably and deservedly he for his lofty courage in
espOusing the cause of a prosecuted man when
that cause seemed hopeless.