to receive tributes of sympathy. The municipalities of various
towns bestowed the name of Rue or Boulevard Zola on one and another
thoroughfare, thus testifying to the revulsion of feeling in favour
of Dreyfus's champion. A considerable sum was yielded by the
subscription[10] for a public monument to be erected in some part of
Paris, perhaps the Tuileries garden, and a design for this monument
was commissioned. In February, 1903, the novelist's last book "Vérité"
was published.[11] Then in March the greater part of his library was
sold at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris, some twenty-six hundred volumes
being thus dispersed.[12] There was a curious illuminated manuscript
breviary of the fourteenth century which Zola had used while writing
"Le Rêve," and numerous historical, philosophical, medical, and other
scientific works, with some volumes of voyages and travels, and
collections of periodicals. None of the above, the breviary excepted,
were of much value, but considerable interest attached to a very
large collection of presentation copies of modern novels and stories,
including all those of Guy de Maupassant and many by the Goncourts,
Gustave Flaubert, Alphonse Daudet, Paul Bourget, Halévy, Huysmans,
Marcel Prévost, Anatole France, Claretie, and others. All those works
were inscribed to Zola by their authors. In a copy of Flaubert's
"Tentation de St. Antoine" were written the words, "_à Zola un solide
que j'aime_"; while the "Trois Contes" contained the inscription "_à
Émile Zola, bon bougre! et du talent! son vieux, Gve. Flaubert_." Some
interest attached also to M. Waldeck-Rousseau's "Questions Sociales,"
published in 1900, for it was inscribed "_à Émile Zola en témoignage
d'admiration_"--and yet M. Waldeck-Rousseau was the statesman who in
that same year carried the Amnesty Law against which Zola so strongly
protested! From this little circumstance one can divine what were M.
Waldeck-Rousseau's private sentiments, whatever may have been his
public declarations with respect to the Affair. The books sold at
the Hôtel Drouot comprised also many of the translations of Zola's
novels in different foreign languages, and the sale further included
a variety of tapestry, curios, and works of art. The total proceeds
were about six thousand one hundred pounds. It may be added that more
than eight hundred of the inscribed presentation volumes were purchased
by Mr. James Carleton Young, a well-known American book-collector,
of Minneapolis, who proposes to establish in that city a magnificent
library, in which every work will bear an inscription by its author.
Autograph letters and manuscripts are also to be included in the
collection, which already comprises several thousand volumes by dead
and living writers in virtually all languages.[13]
It remains to be added here that on May 26, 1903, in the presence of
a few relatives and friends, Zola's remains were quietly translated
from their provisional resting-place to a tomb--designed by M.
Frantz-Jourdain--facing the _rond-point_ or open space near the
entrance of the Montmartre cemetery There they will probably remain
until the French nation decrees their removal to the Pantheon.
[1] See _ante_, p. 430.
[2] "Travail," Paris, Fasquelle, 1901, 18mo, 666 pages; some copies on
special papers, etc. Seventy-seventh thousand in 1903.
[3] In the early parts of this year, 1902, Messrs. Raoul de
Saint-Arroman and Charles Hugot produced a dramatic version of "La
Terre" which attracted considerable attention. Some scenes were
certainly interesting, but the play was deficient in cohesion. The same
authors had previously adapted "Au Bonheur des Dames" for the stage.
Subsequent to Zola's death M. de Saint-Arroman related in "Le Siècle"
that on being asked what percentage of the author's rights in those
plays should be paid to him the novelist had answered, "Whatever you
like." Zola's enemies often insinuated that his nature was a grasping
one in money as in other matters, but there was no truth whatever in
the charge.
[4] The pet dog which had slept in the bedroom was in a very weak
state, but it had vomited during the night, and this may have helped to
save it. Another little dog which had remained in the dressing-room had
not been ill.
[5] The statement current in some newspapers at the time that the
fire which had such a fatal result was of artificial fuel such as
compressed coal dust was inaccurate. Coal was employed, and the writer
believes it to have been Welsh anthracite, for Zola bought such coal in
considerable quantities, chiefly for the electric light installation at
Médan, whither it was brought up the Seine by barge from Rouen. That
such coal would not burn well in a defective chimney is certain. It
ignites with difficulty unless there be a good current of air. On the
other hand, it throws out little if any smoke, and it is a significant
circumstance that none was found in the bedroom.
[6] The writer was in the house while the post-mortem examination was
made, and to the best of his knowledge and belief it lasted about forty
minutes. In view of the stifling fits induced by a form of angina from
which Zola had suffered periodically ever since 1875, it was strange to
hear that all the organs were sound. It is not for the writer to engage
in any discussion with medical men, but he cannot reconcile their
report with the complaint from which Zola undoubtedly suffered.
[7] "L'Œuvre."
[8] Sandoz.
[9] Madame Zola was not present, her relatives and friends having
entreated her to remain at home.
[10] The writer believes that the subscription still remains open
(March 1904), the amount received not being quite sufficient for a
monument on the scale which the committee has in view. The treasurer
is M. Lucien Fontaine, 1 Rue Jacob, Paris. The committee is a
representative one of distinguished Frenchmen.
[11] "Vérité," Paris, Fasquelle, 18mo, 749 pages. Presentation copies
and those of the first thousand with a mourning border on their covers.
[12] It is certain that the fortune left by Zola was of very moderate
amount, for he had never hoarded money. Besides the large sums he had
expended in connection with the Dreyfus case, he had for many years
discharged a number of family obligations with respect to relatives
in modest circumstances both in Italy and France. He was also the
providence of the poorer peasantry around Médan, and the number of
struggling young writers whom he helped with his purse was large.
[13] Mr. Young has acquired some scores of letters written by Zola,
notably several bearing on his attempts to gain admission to the French
Academy.
XV
CONCLUSION
THE INFLUENCE AND SURVIVAL OF ZOLA'S WORKS
The tragic elements in Zola's life--His place in history--Consequences
of his action in the Dreyfus case--Survival of his novels--His
influence on other writers--Social influence of some of his
books--Zola's apostolic fervour--His prophetic instinct--"Germinal,"
"Travail," "Paris," and the French masses--Zola's unwritten book
"Justice"--Result of his denunciations of vice--Immorality in
Paris--Drunkenness in France--Why Zola should be remembered.
Such was the life, such also the death, of the greatest fighter that
France produced in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The
foregoing narrative, whatever may be its imperfections, will at least
have given the reader some idea of that strenuous career which from
youth onward was one long battle, an incessant expenditure of will,
energy, and talent. It was also, like a battle, a resounding career,
most of whose phases echoed all around. In the time of Alexandre Dumas
_père_ it used to be said, "When Dumas sneezes, all Paris starts";
and the same might have been subsequently said of Zola, some of whose
"sneezes," indeed, reverberated far beyond Paris or even France.
Looking at his life from another standpoint it will be found akin
to a tragedy in several respects,--not the kind of tragedy which
suggests thoughts of blood, thunder, and thrilling horrors, but one
of hidden suffering and unrealised aspirations. That may be regarded
perhaps as a petty, commonplace sort of tragedy, such as is enacted
here and there every day, and left unrecorded. In Zola's case we see
aspirations, efforts, struggles, disappointments, domestic trouble,
misrepresentation, insult, and hatred, ending in death by accident,
with just a few years of popularity and wealth thrown in to deepen, by
force of contrast, the shadows of the rest. Even if we regard Zola's
tragedy as that of a man's fight for the benefit of his fellowmen
against those men themselves--and such it largely was--most of its
features will be found to be of a familiar kind. One often perceives
heroes and heroines, enthusiastic workers, fighters, and thinkers,
who think not like the herd, who strive solely for that which they
themselves deem to be right. Few achieve their purpose; the majority
fail, disappear, die--as often as not--broken-hearted. Yet with a new
generation others always arise to renew the combat. Now and again one
of these enthusiasts secures a modicum of success, attains perhaps a
hundredth part of his ambition, effects a hundredth part of the good
he has dreamt of, leaves among many suggestions a single useful one
behind him. But though the success of each individual worker may be
very slight, that which he accomplishes is not lost; joined to what is
accomplished by other workers, it enlarges the sum of progress. Each
additional grain of wheat means an increase of the harvest, and of
those who bring that grain to the store it may be said that even if
they have failed in nine tenths of their efforts their failure is only
relative.
In Zola's career, as in the careers of most men, there was both
failure and success. Near as he still is to us, it is difficult to
tell how far his measure of success will be permanent, how far his
work and memory will survive him. We believe that by his action in
the Dreyfus case he carved for himself an imperishable niche in the
history of his country. Assuredly no historian, whatever his school,
whatever his opinions, will be able to omit Zola's name from any
record of the Third French Republic, for, as M. Anatole France said at
his graveside, the consequences of Zola's action in the Affair have
been immense. Far-reaching changes in the internal policy of France
have proceeded from his deed, which led to a disclosure of the real
sentiments of those Clericalists and Militarists who were closing
in upon the Republic to destroy it. For a time the issue seemed
doubtful; but the policy of Republican defence was inaugurated by M.
Waldeck-Rousseau and has proceeded and expanded under his successor,
M. Combes. To Zola and his letter "J'Accuse," and to the letter's
various consequences, many of the events which have occurred in France
since 1898 may be easily traced, even by those who know nothing of
the novelist's political friendships, of his private intercourse with
statesmen who during the Dreyfus turmoil lacked either the opportunity
or the energy to intervene, and who, while privately assuring Zola of
their sympathy, their conviction even that he was right, repeated to
him: "Unfortunately I am not in office and I am therefore powerless.
Besides, though I see the danger which you point out, it is very
difficult to deal with. One must act with extreme prudence, for the
patriotism of the electorate is aroused, and the Republic might be
wrecked by precipitate action." Subsequently, after the death of Félix
Faure, who was too deeply committed to the military party to take any
honest, impartial action, some of the men who had held such language as
one has indicated came to the front again, and then, as they gradually
took confidence, things slowly changed. When the secret history of the
Dreyfus affair from the political standpoint comes to be written, there
will doubtless be more than one curious disclosure in which Zola will
figure.
We take it, then, that he is assured of a niche in French history. The
question of the ultimate survival of his novels is more difficult to
determine. He himself declared on one occasion, in a public speech,
that it was great honour for a literary man if he were only for one
moment the spokesman of his generation and were even fated to oblivion
afterward. Of course he, like other writers, aspired to some future
fame. At any rate, even as he will figure in national history in
connection with the Affair, so must his novels figure--and figure
prominently, we think--in literary history. Can one imagine any record
of the literary movement in the latter half of the nineteenth century
containing no mention of Zola's writings? Independently of the writings
themselves account has to be taken of their influence on other authors,
not merely in France, but virtually all the world over. Zola always
disclaimed any intention of founding a literary school. He protested
repeatedly against such a suggestion. He had imitators certainly; all
prominent writers have. But apart from those who deliberately set
themselves to copy his methods, there were others, more independent,
who in one or another respect yielded to his influence. Something of
the Naturalism of the Rougon-Macquart series at least found its way
into the English novel, in which also there came a reflection of Zola's
later manner. Mr. George Moore may deny that he sprang from Zola, and
may claim direct descent, as Zola did, from Flaubert and others. But in
any case the principles on which Mr. Moore has often worked have been
the same as those which Zola adopted. Nearer to Zola in some respects
was the late Mr. George Gissing, who in others suggested Maupassant.
The late Mr. Frank Norris, the American novelist, was manifestly
influenced by Zola's later works; and it seems at least likely that
various books by Mr. Hall Caine and Miss Marie Corelli would never have
been written if Zola had not raised certain problems in such volumes
as "Lourdes" and "Rome." Of Mr. Thomas Hardy it may be said perhaps,
as of Mr. George Moore, that he has at least occasionally worked on
lines running parallel to those on which Zola worked for years. It
would be possible also to enumerate a large number of instances in
which Zola's liberating influence has clearly appeared, even when his
actual methods have not been followed. One may claim for him that
he contributed largely and powerfully to free the modern novel from
many shackles, with a result which is conspicuous on all sides. That
nothing but Naturalism should remain in fiction as the result of his
theories and efforts, was of course out of the question. Zola himself
admitted that he had been a mere sectarian when in a dogmatic moment
he had once suggested it. But certainly he helped to sweep away many
conventionalities, and encourage an accurate presentment of life.
Fiction, or at least that branch of it which claims to portray real
life, is no longer the same as it was before he arose, and it seems
hardly likely that it will ever revert to its former state.
With respect to the actual survival of his books as current literature,
that, we think, will depend almost as much on circumstances as on their
merits. They are not light reading. He himself was well aware of it,
and, as we know, he said of himself, the Goncourts, and others, that
future generations might well find their works difficult to read. Many
already find it difficult to read Balzac, though he possessed a gift
of humour which was lacking in Zola. On the other hand, Zola's style
was generally much superior to Balzac's, though the latter was a good
grammarian and could write admirable straightforward French when he
pleased, as witness many letters in his "Correspondence." In the case
both of Balzac and of Zola some knowledge of French history, politics,
manners, and other matters is necessary for a proper understanding of
their works. "Les Rougon-Macquart," like "La Comédie Humaine," can
only be fully appreciated by those who are familiar with the period it
treats of; and though Zola usually confined himself to the elemental
passions which are also the eternal ones, it is perhaps doubtful
whether works of fiction which tax the reader's knowledge in many ways
can hope for immortality. Yet possibly the Rougon-Macquart series has
a better chance of survival than is possessed by some of Zola's other
books, whose social influence has been greater. Influence of that kind
has certainly been exercised by some of the Rougon-Macquart volumes,
though not in the same degree as by such great _machines de guerre_ as
"Lourdes" and "Rome," which reinforced by "Vérité" have proved factors
of weight in the great struggle between clericalism and free thought
in France. As engines of warfare for use in that struggle, they may
survive for many years; but the struggle ceasing they would probably be
soon forgotten, as is usually the case with books whose purpose is too
ostensible. That example will explain the meaning of our remark that
the survival of many of Zola's works will depend on circumstances.
In the final triumph of the principles which his last and unfinished
series enunciated, we feel considerable confidence. We believe, as
Zola did, that the whole world is tending slowly but surely to better
things, that we shall come at last to a more natural and more upright
life, that increase of knowledge will bring increase of truth, increase
of equity, and that the day will come when science will at last
confound all superstitions.
One of the men for whom the novelist in his latest years testified the
most respect was M. Berthelot, the eminent scientist, long the friend
of Renan. It says much for M. Berthelot that he should have exercised
considerable influence on two such men, but it should be remembered
that if they differed in many ways they also had their points of
contact. Though Zola was no priest, whereas Renan remained one in
some essential respects until the end, he had in him an apostolic
fervour which many a priest might have envied. Even in the days of
the Rougon-Macquart novels, which were so impersonal, that fervour
displayed itself freely in all Zola's miscellaneous papers, his
literary, theatrical, and art criticisms. And it is somewhat remarkable
that with this strong fervour within him he should so long have
contrived to check and subdue it directly he turned from an essay to a
novel. When he ceased to do so and allowed it to invade his novels, the
cry of "a new Zola!" arose among those whose knowledge of his writings
was confined to his earlier fiction.
Besides his apostolic fervour, Zola, like Renan, possessed a kind
of prophetic instinct, which proceeded from the exercise to which
he constantly subjected his brain. Every time when in preparing a
new novel he had assembled a number of facts, he proceeded to draw
deductions from them, to weigh all probabilities and possibilities;
and his mind being thus trained, dealt in the same way with all the
current events in which he took interest. During his year's stay in
England at the time of the Dreyfus case he repeatedly told the writer
that he felt sure so-and-so would happen, and in nine cases out of ten
his predictions were accurate. At times when the writer went to him
with a preconceived opinion or some forecast taken from a newspaper it
was particularly interesting to hear him analyse it, examine it under
every aspect, and confirm or refute it in accordance with his view
of the probabilities. On such occasions his systematical and logical
mind was fully revealed; and one may say that the prescience which he
often displayed was far more a matter of knowledge and logic than of
inspiration. The latter undoubtedly came to his aid on some notable
occasions, but even when he so fervently declared his belief in the
innocence of Captain Dreyfus--at a time when all positive proof thereof
seemed lacking--he at least had some logical basis for his belief which
his expertness in deduction had intensified.[1]
It has been pointed out that several of Zola's later books influenced
the community, or at least a large section of it, in connection notably
with the struggle between Church and State in France. "Germinal" and
"Travail," which circulated widely among the working classes, must also
have exercised considerable influence. Of recent years the latter
work has frequently furnished subjects for lectures delivered to
working-class audiences in the French provinces as well as in Paris;
and although, as was remarked in a previous chapter, "Travail" may
not be in some respects a very practical work, its pacific tendencies
are admirable, and the worker who comes under their influence can but
reject the more violent courses which some leaders of advanced opinions
have preached. Again, "Paris," which is not held to be one of Zola's
greatest books, has met with no little favour among the masses, less
because it paints the corruption existing in some spheres of society
than because it gives voice to the chief demand of the masses, which is
for justice. It does not treat the subject fully, being more concerned
with the failure of charity to cope with the necessities of the modern
world, but it indicates that justice should take charity's place, and
this accords so well with the feeling of the multitude that the favour
accorded to the book is but natural.
If Zola had lived another year he would have dealt exhaustively with
that subject of social justice,--equity between class and class,
man and man. It was to have been treated in the last volume of his
"Évangiles." Only two days before his death, on the eve of his return
from Médan to Paris, he wrote to his publisher, M. Fasquelle, that on
the following Monday morning he should begin to prepare that concluding
work. He was unable to do so, for on the morning stated he died; and
foul-minded bigots, on hearing of his intention, repeated with a sneer,
"He was going to begin 'Justice'--well, justice has been done to him."
But whatever vileness may have come from men who ever had the words
"We are Christians" on the tip of their tongues or at the point of
their pens, all those who are in any degree oppressed may well regret
that the hand of death robbed them of a powerful statement of their
rights.[2]
It would not appear that the flagellation of vice which one finds in
the Rougon-Macquart novels has had any widespread effect in France,
though it has undoubtedly done good in individual cases. From the
general standpoint Paris shows little sign of improvement in some
matters. The number of illegitimate births and the number of divorce
cases remain extremely large. It may be said, however, that these point
less to absolute immorality than to new conceptions of marriage and
discontent with existing laws. With respect to the illegitimate births
one finds the fathers of the children constantly recognising their
paternity in the official declarations of birth, and thereby making
themselves responsible for the upbringing of the little ones. The fact
is that cohabitation without marriage seems to increase, while there
is a falling off both in the number of marriages and in the cases of
desertion following seduction.
As regards "L'Assommoir," respecting which the writer has often
cordially re-echoed the opinion that it is one of the greatest
temperance tracts ever written, one can only say that, like other books
of Zola's, it has done good in individual instances, but has failed
to stem the general passion for strong drink. The sobriety of the
French nation was at one time almost proverbial, but there has been
a great change in that matter since the War of 1870. The efforts of
various kinds made to check the consumption of alcohol in Paris itself
have in a measure proved successful, the average having been reduced
during recent years from nine to seven quarts per annum per head of the
population. But Normandy tells a terrible tale: At Caen the consumption
is fifteen quarts per head, at Rouen it is over sixteen, at Havre it is
seventeen, and at Cherbourg, eighteen. It is not surprising, therefore,
to find that the depopulation of Normandy is proceeding apace, that
the women, who are as much addicted to drink as the men, can seldom
bear children, and that even when they become mothers they are unable
to suckle their babes. Thus one of the sturdiest races of France is
perishing, destroyed by cider and potato spirit. The very children
often drink on their way to school, insanity flourishes, and immorality
is widespread.[3]