Evening star., 1933-02-19

eyeglasses packing up his books and papers at
closing time in the reading room of the Bib
liotheque Imperiale of Paris. He has been
thinking out novel, novel of provincial
who has come to Paris to explore and conquer
-Zola's own aim. Other pictures follow. Zola
comes home to Rue Truffaut, No %, where,
the fourth floor, two women await him. The
little apartment is pervaded by the odor OF
leeks and mutton stew 1.-THE two young hands
hold out his velvet jacket and the two old
hands his slippers. Things come to him of
their own accord because of these women" In
the evening his friends come in-Cezanne
Mendes Coppee and others-and in the small
dining room they eat, smoke and talk, talk,
talk
zola's conception of his Rougon- -Macquart
series of novels, which were to be the exponent
of his theory of realism, included plan for 10
volumes covering the natural and social history
OF family of the period of the Second EN-
pire, with the problems of heredity and environ
ment underlying plot and characters. The
working out of his plan produced those MASTER
pieces Of sordid. unrelieved realism, 'LAssom-
moir," study of the devastating effects of
drink upon the lives of an artisans family;
la Fortune des Rougons," lie Ventre de
Paris" Liable Mouret," Mana" and Ger
minal" The only other work Of fiction of
such power and scope as the Rougon- -Macquart
series in Balzac's "Comedie Humane"
Barbusse's "zola" is not comparable In in
formation, Wvidness of detail, thoroughness,
Recommendation, interest with Matthew Jo-
sephsons "Zola," which appeared a few years
ago and left little for any other biographer to
do. But Barbusse has given, in addition to
q succession Of dramatic pictures of the man
and his environment, a convinced estimate of
zola as the greatest leader Of the naturalistic
school in French fiction, the inheritor of the
tradition Of Balzac, who carried Balzacs realism
to its logical end, that is to greater depths.
MARIE ANToINETTE. BY Katharine Anthony.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
KATHARINE ANTHONY has shown unusual
~ ability in the Interpretation of the char
acters OF famous women. She has intuition for
motives, Is charitable, but not sentimental, and
knows how to present episodes dramatically.
Her first biography was Margaret Fuller"
which was followed by Catherine the Great"
and Queen Elizabeth" Marie Antoinette was
not as tremendous character as Queen Eliza
beth; she had misfortunes instead of greatness.
So her biography is sighter less full of interest
than that OF England's capricious, scheming
domineering, but very able Queen. Though
Miss Anthony writes popularity, she does not
write without Que preparation. Her bibho-
graphy Is not imposing but it is fairly adequate
and includes many good secondary sources as
well as few primary ones. Among the latter
are the letters of Maria Theresa and Marie
Antoinette
Marie Antoinette, born November q 1755.
was the fifteenth child, the eleventh daughter
OF Maria Theresa, Empress Of Austria THE
day on which this child was born was the day
OF the Lisbon earthquake in which 40 900 lives
were lost 1t was viewed as dark portent by
the eighteenth century. i. All children who
were born on this day were regarded as un-
lucky" and when her fate was completed
Marie Antoinette reinforced the superstition,
The children of Maria Theresa were all her
hKori4 A-k1
she married to the Dauphin of France grand
son of Louis XIV, though Louis XIV was not
eager for the match and the bride was not ia
yorably impressed with her bridegroom. At
Versailles, the 15-year old girl, who had simply
done her arrogant mothers bidding, was an
unwelcome bride and was dubbed THE Aus
trian" by the scornful Bourbons. Perhaps
there was some excuse for her extravagances in
amusement, her 40 dogs, her preoccupation with
dress, her lavish expenditures on the Trianons
With the death of Louis XIV, Marie Anton-
ette became Queen of France, just in time to
assist the stupid Louis XVI in paying the ex-
treme penalty for all the selfishness and in
justice of the Bourbons The domestic unhap
piness of Louis XVI and Marie Antionette was
known to all Paris. Soon it was also known
that Count Fersen, son of Swedish senator
and field marshal, who had just returned to
France after four years of fighting in America,
was the intimate friend of the Queen The
papers of Fersen, Miss Anthony SAYS, show
that he and Marie Antoinette were deeply in
love and to his love she owed the brief period
OF happiness before her life ended IN the Con-
ciergerie and at the guillotine The attempted
escape of the royal pair from the revolution, in
their flight to Varennes the Imprisonment of
both, the execution of the King then the exc
cution of Marie Antoinette all furnish acutely
dramatic material of which Miss Anthony has
made such good use that her history of the
events has all the qualities of romantic
tragedy.
THE COLOURED DOME, BY Francis Stuart.
New York: The Macmillan Co.