New-York tribune., 1902-10-18
ZOLA AT THE BAR.
FRENCH AND ENGLISH JUDGMENT ON
HIS FICTION.

The merits and demerits OF Zola' the au-
thor, have just been passed upon by his French
and English contemporaries, and the conclu-
sions at which they have arrived do not point
10 enduring fame for the creator of Mana"
Literary opinion in France the Paris CORE
spondent of The Pan Mall Gazette asserts, has
summed up dead against his work 1t holds
that the novelist has undoubtedly degraded
the public taste" that his psychology was not
worthy OF the name" that his science deceived
only the ignorant and his style was often medi-
ocrity itself" 1t is added: Having never un-
derstood human nature, his supposed studies
we're crude and brutal His characters are
gallery Of rnonstrosities. Though he wrote with
a pen that never ceased. and his books appeared
with great regularity, there is not figure in
all his writings that emerges with any clear
ness and power" The prejudice created by the
Dreyfus business may have something TO do
with the Judgment of France; but some Of the
English critics are nearly drastic. In care
full editorial The Pail Mall Gazette" says that
Zola and his fellow disciples forgot, in their
eagerness TO be natural, that Nature is not
always ugly and malodOrous-they forgot that
things are not less real because they are fair
rather than foul. 1t is the absence of any
realization of that truth that makes much Of
Zolas work so profoundly depressing There
are books OF his in which 1t is scarcely pos
sible to point TO a single character that pos
sesses a solitary note of nobility OF soul Now
this may be naturalsm, but assuredly it is
not nature" Yet granting him greatness Of
kind, the Gazette" comedies that the historian
Of social France viii not be able to disregard
the Rougon- -AIacquart series The critic Of The
Speaker says
Emile Zola achieved no perfect piece Of lit
10 rel
beauty in spite Of his close intercourse, IN the
early days, with Flaubert and Turgenev. and
the other companions Of those Attic Nights at
Magnys. He had no notoa Of measure And
he saw mankind entirely from without, and his
scientific creed led him TO eliminate too much
that is really essential tc the illusion OF hdeI-
ity.
The man OF the Note Book IN The illustrated
London News" says that Zoa's realism was US
ually fantastic assumption that mankind is a
waowing herd of swine without discrimina-
ton. and he adds: That view was inevitable
to an author who set out 10 write twenty vol
umes about hereditary disease When he want
ed TO detach himself from this habit he pro-
duced lie Reve' a fairy tale so infinitely fool
ish as TO warrant Anatolc Frances biting COM
ment that TO Zola with angels wings he pre-
ferred Zola 'on al-fours.'" Noting that Zola
had determined to make "Naturalsm' the
scourge Of the age, the literary weapon that
should compel men and women TO with their |
eyes and hear with their the facts Of
the life around them-"not of life as 1t as
sumed to exist. but OF life it was"-"The F.
Spectator says.
The vast popularity If his books should have |
been a warning 10 him as To The way his hc- /
tional proph tic outpourIngs were being taken /
by the world. Instead that popularity led him !
to degrade the mission which he huasted. Ia /
spite OF desire To do full justice to NJ. /
Zola, cannot deny that too often, TO use |
Souths phrase, one smells the parasite through /
the prophet"-the social parasite who gives the /
populace what they want, not what they need. !
Thinking men We're appalled, at /
the subjects that ne chose and not uuuaturally, /
and could not wholly accept his answer: These /
things are facts and can. only DE abolished |
by men and women graphing with them. Peo- /
Tle Will not read Bue-books. but they will read /
my novels" 1t was not well that |
these things should be. but they would !nev- |
tably continue To be, he urged. and so far quite |
rightly, while men and women shut their eyes /
to them. Therefore, Unreadable as NJ. Zola |
often Is, we do not wish 10 assert that he nad /
no right to point out the "troughs' which Ten /
nyson named after him. But even though il is /
admitted that he had the right To do So and /
whatever his motive may have been. hold /
that he was, in fact, turning the drain into /
the fountain, and that this was not the right /
way to call attention to the perils of bad drain
age. We cannot doubt that NJ Zolas books did |
a very great deal of harm,-and what is more |
more harm than good. The hdeous details |
might have been justified had they been in
fused with the essential Christian spirit or with
the passion OF regeneration and human sym
pathy but they were not They move 10 pity |
and terror and disgust. but there is no true
solution Of the passions aroused.
Admitting that there are flashes OF the high
est art in his work. THE Spectator concludes.
Every artist sees Nature in his own way. II
is in seeing Nature that art comes into being
and when Rabelais. Walt Whitman or NJ lola
was engaged in cataloguing facts they left
with manifest unsuccess. the region of ntera-
ture for the realm of social science"
That IL is doubtful if Zolas books Will live |
except as ponderous curiosites is the apparent
belief Of the critic of The Academy and Lit +
erature": They Jack the vitality. the yfvfrvinc
sparkle OF genius. They raised too much dust
too much noise about them for genuine works
of art.
He saw life and its effects in all things
wIohsiy eAaSserating its tuTpitudes painting |
its eVll side so grossly TO give US a carica-
ture OF wee, men and women destitute NJ |
every quahty or instinct that is NOT incon,ei,, |
aply oase and putrid. and describing tts ,.ir
tuous aspects with the lyricism that might NOR |
Justly nave applied 70 some Imagined ,voria /
Mhere creatures Of different moral ana ,b,
sIIa, I ouIu from ours dwell in 4 superterree |
@ IIIoi ma tIIIohy- When one asks ones self What |
answers-humOr. ''''i''S
one OF the tribe of giants" The SATURDAY,
heVie" calls him. and believing that his work
was worm doing, also believes that to what
extent was worth doing may well be de-
&c" years later The charms of stvIe |
hao no attractions for t. noyelist-..tbe,, u,ar
- 70 'he desire 10 give a picture of
lie as seen through the temperament Of Tho
reformer." Putting aside the ya,,,a 90 -.
suit. the Review adds: THAT the ras,,It =
stupendous in scope and accordire, =. -,