Odéon (March, 1866), and when Got, one of the performers, had occasion
to exclaim, "England, the land of liberty!" nearly the entire audience,
composed of the intellectual leaders of Paris, rose and applauded
tumultuously, in spite of the Emperor's presence. He was deeply
impressed by this demonstration.
[5] Zola's "Les Romanciers Naturalistes," Paris, Charpentier, 1881 _et
seq._
[6] The present writer can speak of these matters from personal
knowledge; he well knew M. Bourdilliat, the founder of the Librairie
Nouvelle, and afterwards connected for many years with "Le Monde
Illustré," which Frank Vizetelly helped to establish, and of which he
was the first editor. As for the Librairie Internationale, it became
the commercial agency of the "Illustrated London News," which Henry
Vizetelly (the writer's father) represented in Paris for several years.
[7] "Le Maudit" was followed by "La Réligieuse," "Le Jésuite," "Le
Moine," etc., all of these books having very large sales in Paris.
[8] See _ante_. p. 66.
[9] The above passage corrects and supplements the particulars given
by the writer in the preface to the English translation of "L'Œuvre,"
edited by him. "His Masterpiece," by É. Zola, London, Chatto and
Windus, 1902.
[10] "Mon Salon," Paris, Librairie Centrale, 1866, 12mo, 99 pages.
The articles are also given in the volume entitled "Mes Haines"
(Charpentier and Fasquelle).
[11] M. Coste, who is well known as a _publiciste_ in France, should
have been mentioned earlier in this work. Though not so intimate with
Zola as Baille and Cézanne, he knew him in his school days. He largely
helped Paul Alexis in the preparation of the latter's biographical work
on Zola.
[12] "Le Vœu d'une Morte," Paris, Faure, 1866, 18mo. Reissued by
Charpentier, 1889 and 1891.
[13] "A Dead Woman's Wish," translated by Count C. S. de Soissons,
London, 1902.
[14] "L'Illustration," December 15, 1866, to February 16, 1867. The
story is included in the "Nouveaux Contes à Ninon," 1874.
[15] It must have been held, we think, at Marseilles or Aix.
[16] The substance of the paper was worked into the articles which Zola
collected in the volume entitled "Le Roman Expérimental," Paris, 1880
_et seq._
[17] "La Grande Revue," May, 1903, p. 254.
[18] First issued in the "Revue du XIXe Siècle"; afterwards in pamphlet
form by Dentu, with a portrait of Manet by Bracquemond, and an etching
of Manet's "Olympia" by the painter himself. The text was reprinted in
the volume, "Mes Haines."
[19] Besides appearing serially in "Le Messager de Provence," "Les
Mystères de Marseille" was issued in parts (16mo) by Mengelle
of Marseilles, 1867-1868; and in volume form (with preface) by
Charpentier, Paris, 1884. Both "La Lanterne" and "Le Corsaire," of
Paris, published the story serially after the Franco-German War. In
the latter journal it was called "Un Duel Social," by "Agrippa,"
under which title it was again issued in parts (12mo) for popular
consumption. There is an English translation: "The Mysteries of
Marseilles," translated by Edward Vizetelly. London, Hutchinson & Co.,
1895 _et seq._
[20] £24 or about $120. Houssaye had previously paid Zola a third of
that amount for his study on Manet (see _ante_, p. 101), and the money
had reached the young author just in time to enable him to save his
furniture from being seized and sold by a creditor.
[21] "Thérèse Raquin," Paris, Librairie Internationale: 1st edition,
1867; 2d, 1868; 3d, 1872; 4th and 5th, 1876; 6th, 7th, etc.,
Charpentier, 1880, 1882, etc. Illustrated editions: Marpon, 8vo, 1883;
Charpentier, 32mo, 1884. Popular edition at 60 centimes: Marpon, 16mo,
1887. English translations: (1) anonymous, Vizetelly & Co., _cir._
1886-1889; (2) by Edward Vizetelly, London, Grant Richards, 1902.
[22] "Le Voltaire," August 10-14, 1880. See also "Documents
Littéraires," by É. Zola, Paris, Charpentier (and Fasquelle), 1881 _et
seq._
[23] Théâtre Beaumarchais, October 17, 1867.
[24] October 27, 1867.
[25] "Madeleine Férat," Paris, Librairie Internationale, 1st and 2d
editions, 1868; 3d, Marpon and Flammarion, 1878; 4th, Charpentier,
1880; new edition, Charpentier, 1892, etc. Popular edition at 60
centimes, Marpon, 1891. English translation: Vizetelly & Co., _cir._
1888.
V
THE FIRST "ROUGON-MACQUARTS"
1868-1872
The Goncourts, Zola, and his proposed "family history"--Origin of this
idea--Degeneration and heredity--Zola's agreement with M. Lacroix--He
begins "La Fortune des Rougon"--His intercourse with Meurice, Coppée,
etc.--His work on "Le Rappel," "La Tribune," "Le Gaulois"--Sincerity
of his democratic views--Goncourt's allegation that he would have
sold his pen to the Empire--Some venal French journalists--Zola's
marriage and opinion of the married state--His home in the Rue de
La Condamine--"Le Siècle" and "La Fortune des Rougon"--"La Curée"
begun--Zola takes his ailing wife to Provence--Outbreak of war with
Germany--Zola and military service--He conducts a newspaper at
Marseilles, becomes Secretary to Glais-Bizoin at Bordeaux, and is
offered a Sub-Prefecture--His chances as a state functionary--He
reverts to journalism and literature--His work on "La Cloche" and
"Le Corsaire"--Publication of "La Fortune des Rougon"--The public
prosecutor and "La Curée"--Its issue in book form--Failure of Zola's
publisher, Lacroix--The novelist's dire distress--The wool of his
mattresses sold to buy bread--He is recommended by Théophile Gautier to
M. Charpentier--His "slop" clothes and his new publishing contract--M.
Charpentier's generous honesty--How Zola passed from penury to
affluence.
It has been mentioned already that when the Goncourts' novel, "Germinie
Lacerteux," was published in 1865, some little correspondence took
place between Zola and the authors, they being really grateful to him
for the favourable review of their work which he had contributed to "Le
Salut Public," of Lyons. They told him that he alone had understood
the book, that his frankness consoled them for much of the literary
hypocrisy of the times, and that they admired his courage in daring
to confess his likings.[1] Subsequently, wishing to become personally
acquainted with Zola, they called on him, but found him absent. In
February, 1868, however, still remembering his article on their book,
they wrote to him in praise of "Thérèse Raquin," in which they detected
the hand of an artist, one who had probed human truth and crime to the
core.[2]
From Alexis's account it has been inferred by several writers that
Zola and the Goncourts became intimate in 1865; but the latter's
"Journal" shows, peremptorily, that they did not actually meet
till December 14, 1868,[3] when Zola lunched with the brothers at
their house on the Boulevard Montmorency, at Auteuil. This time the
approaches probably came from Zola.[4] The Goncourts were preparing
their novel "Madame Gervaisais," and he, with the idea of writing an
anticipatory article on it, seems to have applied for information,
whereupon he was invited to the Goncourts' house. They had pictured
him as somewhat of a _Normalien_, a pedagogue, and they found him
sickly, nervous, anxious, deep, intricate, in fact almost a riddle!
He told them of the difficulties of his position, admitted that his
novel, "Madeleine Férat," ran off the rails and ought to have been
limited to three characters; complained of having to conform to idiotic
editorial opinions in some articles he was then contributing to "La
Tribune," a weekly opposition journal, and expressed a keen desire to
find a publisher who, over a term of six years, would pay him a sum
of thirty thousand francs for eight novels, in which the history of a
family would be recounted.[5] This history, of course, was that of
the Rougon-Macquarts, which finally expanded into a series of twenty
volumes.
[Illustration: Photo by C. Martinet Boulevard Zola, Aix-in-Provence
Photo by C. Martinet On the Banks of the Arc, near Aix]
At a later date, on August 27, 1870, while lunching with Edmond de
Goncourt,[6]--Jules had died in the previous June--Zola reverted to
this subject and expressed his conviction that, after all which had
been accomplished by others, such as by Flaubert in "Madame Bovary,"
after all the analysis of petty shades of feeling, all the minute
jewelry work, so to say, which had been done in literature, there was
no longer any call for the younger men to imagine and build up any one
or two characters, they could only appeal to the public by the power
and the breadth of their creations,--briefly, they must work on a large
scale. And Zola allowed it to be inferred that it was this view which
had prompted his scheme of a family history
But he had not been influenced solely by that consideration. The
original germ of his idea lay far back, in that projected poetic
trilogy, "Genèse," which was to have recounted the advent, development,
and destiny of mankind. That vague scheme, suggested by the pages of
Lucretius, had been resuscitated, transformed, modernised, so to say,
by the repeated perusal of Balzac's "Comédie Humaine"; and there is
little doubt that, from the practical standpoint of personal advantage,
Zola was also influenced by the success of many connected series of
books. It is a question whether Balzac's novels were widely read at
that moment. Cheap, badly printed on the vilest paper, they were to
be seen in almost every bookseller's shop, but their covers, soiled
and fading, often spoke of long continuance in the dealers' custody,
whereas there could be no doubt of the ready sale, the immense vogue,
of Erckmann-Chatrian's numerous productions. Those so-called "Romans
Nationaux" hung well together, thanks to a variety of connecting links,
and in their prodigious circulation Zola constantly had before his eyes
an example of the great success which might attend a series of novels
leading skilfully one from the other.
But he did not propose to write about the past, even the near past,
such as the First Republic and the First Empire, which had supplied
Erckmann-Chatrian with their themes; his aim was to describe
contemporary manners, those of the then-existing Second Empire. That
_régime_ had begun in blood, and had passed through some remarkable
phases, which would provide him with suitable backgrounds for several
stories. And it followed--purely and simply as a matter of course--that
the series he contemplated must be largely a record of social and
natural degeneration. The degeneracy of the times was a stock subject,
a commonplace of contemporary literature. The playwrights--Ponsard,
Augier, Feuillet, Barrière, Sardou, Dumas _fils_, and others, had
harped upon it for years. It had figured in numerous novels; it had
formed the subject of many volumes of so-called "serious" literature;
it had appeared in the pages of Tocqueville, it had found an echo amid
even the hopefulness of Prévost-Paradol's "France Nouvelle"; it was a
theme repeatedly selected by those newspapers which did not pander to
the supporters of the _demi-monde_. No doubt, there has never been a
time, since men began to write, when some of them have not pictured
the world and the human species as degenerate. The cry, _O! tempora,
O! mores_, has re-echoed through all the centuries indiscriminately.
But under a _régime_ so base and corrupt as the Second French Empire
it was justifiable. There could then be no doubt that degeneracy was
indeed attacking the nation.
What Zola himself thought on the subject was indicated by him with
vigorous indignation in a newspaper article apropos of the licentious
operettas of the time. Protesting against all the clappers who went
into ecstasies when a so-called actress emphasised "some obscene
expression by her contortions," he exclaimed: "_Ah, misère!_ on the
day when the sublime idea occurs to some woman to play the part of a
----, _au naturel_, on the stage, Paris will fall ill with enthusiasm.
But what else can you expect? We have grown up amid shame, we are the
bastard progeny of an accursed age. As yet we have only reached jerking
of the hips, exhibition of the bosom; but the slope is fatal, and we
shall roll down it to the very gutter unless we promptly draw ourselves
erect and become free men."[7]
But another point has to be considered. At the very outset of Zola's
scheme the predisposition towards certain branches of science which he
had shown in his youth revived. The question of hereditary influence
had already attracted his attention while he was writing "Madeleine
Férat," and it assumed larger proportions and greater complexity when
he began to think of his projected family history. The members of the
family in question (like all others) would be affected not merely
by their actual environment but also by psychological conditions
coming from their progenitors. Zola felt that he must study the
question carefully, and for some months his spare time was spent at
the Bibliothèque Impériale (now Nationale) where he read every book
he could discover treating of hereditary influence. As he himself
subsequently stated, among the works which most impressed him, there
was particularly one by a now almost forgotten scientist, Dr. Prosper
Lucas,[8] the brother of Charles Lucas, the eminent pioneer in
criminology.
At the end of 1868 Zola drew up a scheme of his proposed "family
history," even then preparing the original genealogical tree of the
Rougon-Macquarts such as he conceived it.[9] He set down also the terms
on which he would write the series, which at this date he proposed to
limit to twelve volumes. And he carried everything to his publisher,
M. Lacroix, who, while regarding the offer favourably, would not
bind himself at the outset for more than the first four volumes. An
agreement in that sense was signed in the spring of 1869; it being
stipulated that Zola was to write two volumes each year and to receive
five hundred francs a month from Lacroix, not in actual payment for
his work but as an advance. The stories were to be sold in the first
instance to newspapers for serial issue, and with the proceeds of those
sales the publisher was to be refunded his advances, wholly or in part.
On the subsequent publication in book form (each volume being priced at
three francs[10]) the author was to receive a royalty of forty centimes
(or about thirteen per cent) on every copy sold. But if the publisher's
advances had not been fully repaid with the newspaper money he was to
reimburse himself out of the book royalties as they accrued.
So far, the arrangement, though somewhat unusual, would not seem to
have been unduly intricate, but it was rendered so by the further
stipulation that every month, on receiving his advance of five hundred
francs, Zola should hand Lacroix a promissory note for that amount, at
three months' date, those notes being renewable until each volume was
issued, when a proper account was to be drawn up. But with this system
confusion set in, particularly as after a long delay in the serial
issue of the first volume the War of 1870 supervened, in consequence of
which M. Lacroix found himself in serious financial difficulties.
To Zola, at the outset, everything seemed clear sailing. He had ensured
himself an annual income of six thousand francs[11] for at least two
years, and he had only to set to work. Thus, in May, 1869, he started
on his first volume, "La Fortune des Rougon," in which he pictured the
origin of the family whose history he proposed to recount, and its
first ignoble rise to position with the help of Louis Napoleon's _coup
d'état_. The scene of the narrative was laid at Aix, which had so long
been Zola's home and which, for his literary purposes, he now called
Plassans.[12]
His book was written in a Republican spirit with considerable boldness
for those Imperial times. And in this connection, by way both of
refuting a suggestion made by Edmond de Goncourt, that Zola, in his
penury, would willingly have sold himself to the Empire, had it chosen
to buy him, and of showing the young author's participation in the
journalism of the period, it is as well that one should momentarily
retrace one's steps.
Already in 1867, through M. Albert Lacroix, his publisher, Zola
had become acquainted with M. Paul Meurice, an able novelist and
playwright, best known, however, by his connection with Victor Hugo.
The great man had a horror of proof-correcting, and even in his
lifetime much of his writing was passed for the press and, one may add,
revised by M. Meurice, to whom, since then, has fallen the task of
editing both the poet's correspondence and the _éditions définitives_
of his books. In the last years of the third Napoleon's reign Hugo
lived at Brussels, M. Meurice acting in many matters as his Parisian
representative.[13] Madame Meurice's drawing-room was thrown open
to all the _Hugolâtres_ of the time; and Zola often attended her
receptions, accompanied on some occasions by Duranty, on others by
Manet. He then met several of the so-called Parnassian poets,[14]
who, though their methods were often very different from those of the
master, professed great admiration for him. Such were Sully Prudhomme
and François Coppée, both of whom Zola first met in Madame Meurice's
drawing-room. With M. Coppée, his relations became and remained
intimate until the great Dreyfus case, when the so-called "poet of
the humble," suffering from a serious chronic disorder, and fearful
of losing the services of an expert medical attendant devoted to the
priestly cause, resolved to save both soul and body by joining the
great crusade against the Jews.
Towards the close of 1868 politics passed before literature in Madame
Meurice's _salon_, for the tide of opposition to the Empire was then
rising rapidly. In May, that year, Henri Rochefort, thanks to a
new press law and the help of Villemessant, had started his famous
periodical, "La Lanterne"; and in all directions the liberal newspapers
had become more and more outspoken, in spite of the many sentences to
fine and imprisonment which were heaped on their managers, writers,
and printers. The grant of the right of public meeting added to the
general unrest, and when 1869 arrived the excitement of the Parisians
became the greater as general elections were appointed to take place in
May. "La Lanterne" having been crushed--Rochefort seeking an asylum in
Belgium where Hugo gave him hospitality--many suggestions of starting
another opposition journal were made in Madame Meurice's _salon_. A
certain Barbieux, a victim of the _Coup d'État_, carried the idea
to Hugo at Brussels, and no satisfactory title having been as yet
suggested, the poet undertook to provide one. The next morning, says
Rochefort in his autobiography,[15] he proposed "Le Rappel"--a speaking
title for those times, signifying a call to arms, the mustering of all
who wished to shake off the rule of Napoleon III.
From the first gossip at Madame Meurice's it had been arranged that
Zola should belong to the staff of the proposed journal, the principal
contributors to which were Charles and François Hugo, the great man's
sons; Louis Blanc the historian; Auguste Vacquerie, perhaps the
ablest and most fervent of all the _Hugolâtres;_[16] Paul Meurice,
of whom one has already spoken; Rochefort, who reprinted portions of
his "Lanternes" in "Le Rappel"; Édouard Lockroy, who subsequently
married Charles Hugo's widow, and since those days has been a member
of more than one Republican Chamber and Ministry; Laferrière, who
under the Republic became President of the Council of State, and later
Governor-general of Algeria; and finally Zola.
It has already been shown that the latter was by no means a frantic
partisan of Victor Hugo, but he was drawn towards the great man's band
by circumstances, by an admiration for the poet, which if tempered by
his critical sense was within its limits perfectly sincere, and also
by a genuine sympathy with the object which the projected newspaper
was to further. In one of his earliest contributions to the press,
one dealing with Napoleon III's "Life of Cæsar," he had shown that
he in no wise admired the Man of Destiny. Other early writings, even
passages of "Les Contes à Ninon," breathed a spirit incompatible with
Bonapartist imperialism. Further, life in the Quartier Latin had helped
to republicanise Zola, and when he took to journalism for a livelihood,
it was to the popular opposition press that he naturally turned. Even
if "L'Événement" and "Le Figaro" were originally non-political, their
tendencies at any rate were against the Empire. Again, "Le Salut
Public," of Lyons, was not a government journal, nor was "Le Gaulois,"
to which Zola contributed several articles on social subjects,
literature, and literary men soon after its establishment by Edmond
Tarbé. Then, too, "La Tribune," a weekly journal for which he wrote
regularly, was certainly most democratic, if rather eccentric in some
of its views.[17]
Nevertheless, a few years after the invasion and revolution, Edmond de
Goncourt, lunching one day with Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, did not
hesitate to declare that the Empire might have secured Zola's services
had it chosen. "He was penniless, he had a mother and a wife to keep.
At the outset he had no public opinions. You could have had him on your
side like many others, had you chosen. He could only find democratic
newspapers to take his copy. Living among all those folk, he became a
democrat. It was quite natural." And Goncourt added that the Princess
Mathilde had disarmed many hatreds and angers by her friendship,
graciousness, and attentions, winning over such men as himself, his
brother, and Flaubert to the Empire which, otherwise, they also would
have attacked.[18]
Those allegations, so far as they concern Zola, cannot be left
unanswered. The Goncourts' "Journal" shows that the brothers, with all
their gifts, were not men of the highest principles; and it is evident
that they often judged others by their own standard. As a matter of
fact there is no shred of evidence that Zola would ever have sold
himself to the Empire. At the time of that _régime_, as subsequently,
his chief interest lay in literature and art, politics came afterwards;
but so far as he concerned himself in them his opinions were
essentially democratic. In all respects Edmond de Goncourt's assertions
were erroneous. If Zola had cared to sell his pen for political
purposes he might have done so with the greatest ease. In 1868-1869,
when he first began to give real attention to politics, the authorities
were only too anxious to secure clever men who might reply to Rochefort
and all the other opposition writers. Large sums were spent in bribing
journalists. Villemessant was paid ten thousand pounds to shake off
Rochefort and support the authorities; Émile de Girardin was bought
with the promise of a senatorship; Clément Duvernois was secured by
being placed at the head of a new journal, "Le Peuple Français," on
which the Privy-purse, in little more than one year, expended over
fifty-six thousand pounds.[19] More money was spent on other journals,
new ones like "L'Étendard," for which Auguste Vitu (one of the original
characters of Murger's "Vie de Bohème") was engaged; "Le Public," whose
editor, Ernest Dréolle, was financed; and "L'Époque," whose nominal
proprietor was Dusautoy, the Emperor's tailor. For these and other
newspapers contributors were required, and a good many clever but needy
men of lax principles presented themselves. The less brazen among them
found their excuse in the pretended transformation of the _régime_;
they would never have served the "personal Empire"--of course not!--but
the "liberal Empire" commanded their sympathies.