Evening star., 1930-12-17

another one of Zola's books he takes
some 200 pages to describe a garden.
Cooper did something of the same sort
OF thing in his novels, notably in "The
Prairie" which most young readers re-
gard as highly boresome.
The di1erence between Americas
Cooper and Frances Zola lay in this:
That with the former description was
description; with zola 1t was part of
the essence of the tale.
just how writer secures this effect
Is difficult to explain. Perhaps expla-
nation does not hold candle to the
ability to do it. With Zola it was a
hitting of moods to external things, with
a proper suspension of the story action,
the plot, until the necessary description
was given.
permits the reader to take the control
away from him. In too many of our
modern novels the author allows the
reader to tell him beforehand just what
to write and almost how to write 1t.
Zola had one eye on the reader, TOO,
it must be admitted. Il have shocked
them; now 1 will make 'em weep" 1t
is said that he never left of scanning
the reports of his publishers. He 1ol-
lowed the sales of each of his novels
with an eagle eye.
his publishers, nor yet 41iS readers, VINO
determined to do so and so in his next
effort. He mixed 'em up" all through
his writing career, changing his themes
to keep up the interest.
+ X X
So Zola failed in his purpose to make
Paris weep. His Love EPISODE VIII II
make no one weep today. Perhaps 1t
would If made into motion picture, a
talkie.
What the novel does do, however, is
leave the reader with an impression OF
reality. He feels that he has known
these people, has been with them, seen
them, heard them talk, liked them, dis
liked them. They may be sketchy IN
a sense. but are not all the people we
actually know much the same? what
do we really know of these friends and
acquaintances? Even the people sitting
across the table from us never tell us
half or one-fourth of what they think.
Nor do we them.
It has been said that Emile Zola
secured his sense of realism, or what
ever one wants to call it, by meticulous
observation and description. No doubt
that has something to do with 1t, but
that it has all to do with 1t one may
question.
Greater tnan CTlaL, however, lie uIl-
derstood the secret of inner construc-
ton, which permits the novelist to
weave words which, If they do not sing,
at least compel the reader to see, to
hear, to smell, to think, to realize.
No one who has ever been impatient
with sickness at some time or other
and there are few human beings who
have not in moments of health-wil be
able to resist the pathetic appeal of the
sick child in "A Love Episode" or the
relationship of this sickness to the ro-
bust health of her mother.
Herein lie the tragedy and the sor-
row. and it was because the colo, hard
Zola, as he has been called, was human
enough to understand and appreciate
that he compels the reader to under
stand and appreciate,
This it is, this inner construction,
built on sympathetic understanding
and the ability to make words tell some
thing else in addition to what they
plainly tell as words. This is the Sc
cret of every great writer-a secret
which always remains secret. Zola
had it, Lewis has it. How they do 1t
is their own business.