authors may write in vain, even as the clergy may preach, if
legislation does not come to their aid. In some matters even
legislation is futile, and then reform can only come gradually, as the
result of example and knowledge. To improve the nation you must usually
begin by improving the individual. If, then, Zola succeeded in his aims
in individual cases--and the writer holds strongly that he did--he
effected all that he could reasonably hope for. He did not stamp out
vice in France. Neither has the State done so, nor has the Church,
nor has any other powerful and wealthy organisation. Zola had only his
brain and his pen, and with those weapons he did his best, according
to his lights. He was all sincerity; hypocrisy was the thing he most
detested. He fought the good fight. After setting forth the evil that
was, he preached the cleanly and the fruitful life, brotherliness,
equity, rectitude, and truthfulness. He desired the suppression of all
noxious agents, and it was because he regarded the Roman Church as
such that he assailed it so fiercely. Moreover, he did not share the
delusion which imagines a heaven beyond the skies; he wished to set
a heaven in this our planet. That was his ideal. He did not believe
in resignation. He placed his faith in work and effort. He loved his
Mother Earth, he pictured her beauties. He loved his fellowmen; in
his harshest moments he sought their good only. The one error of his
life showed how human he was. If he were ambitious it was that he
might advocate the principles in which he believed, with more and more
authority. In a dim and dolorous hour,
"when God himself seemed dumb
And all his arching skies were in eclipse,"
this abused and insulted novelist turned from his work and smote for
truth and justice. Others shall decide whether he was a man of genius;
suffice it for us that, all his life, he was a man of bravery. He
feared none. If there was tragedy in his career, he knew how to bear
it. He felt, he prophesied, the day would come when justice would
be done to him. That day is hastening; and in whatever estimation
his writings may be held hereafter, whether some survive, whether
all sink into oblivion, his memory will assuredly abide for many
generations, for the world does not willingly forget those who teach it
courage,--the first, the foremost quality that life demands of man.
[1] As the result of constant exercise, his mind often worked with
great rapidity in these matters, the various aspects of a case and its
possibilities coming to him almost in a flash.
[2] Zola left behind him the libretto of a _drame lyrique_, "L'Enfant
Roi," which M. Bruneau has since set to music, and which is to be
performed at the Opéra Comique in Paris.
[3] In the autumn of 1902 the writer was a guest at one of the monthly
dinners of the French Society of Anthropology. Several members had
lately returned from Normandy where they had been making exhaustive
inquiries into the subject referred to above. The consensus of opinion
was that the drink curse had caused greater ravages in Normandy than in
any other part of Europe.
APPENDIX
A
DECLARATION OF THE BIRTH OF ÉMILE ZOLA
The year 1840, this fourth day of April, at a quarter past two
o'clock in the afternoon, before us, Barthélémy Benoist Decau,
knight of the Legion of Honour, Mayor of the Third Arrondissement of
Paris, discharging the functions of registrar of births, deaths, and
marriages, there has appeared the Sieur François Antoine Joseph Marie
Zola, civil engineer, forty-four years of age, residing in Paris at No.
10 _bis_ Rue St. Joseph, who has presented to us a child of the male
sex, born the day before yesterday, at eleven o'clock in the evening,
at the appearer's residence, being the son of the said appearer and of
Françoise Émilie Aubert, his wife, married in Paris at the municipal
offices of the First Arrondissement, on March 16, 1839; to which
said child the appearer has given the forenames of Émile Édouard
Charles Antoine. Entered in the presence of Norbert Lecerf, grocer,
age fifty-two years, residing in Paris, at No. 18 Rue St. Joseph, and
of Louis Étienne Auguste Aubert, of independent means, age fifty-six
years, residing in Paris at No. 106 Rue de Cléry, maternal grandfather
of the said child. And after perusal of the present the father and the
witnesses have signed, ZOLA, LECERF, AUBERT, DECAU, mayor.
B
DECLARATION OF THE DEATH OF ZOLA
The year 1902, this thirtieth day of September, before us, Mayor of
the Ninth Arrondissement of Paris, declaration has been made of
the death of Monsieur Émile Zola, officer of the Legion of Honour,
_homme de lettres_, who died the twenty-ninth September in Paris, at
his residence, situated No. 21 _bis_ Rue de Bruxelles, at the age of
sixty-two years. Son of the deceased François Zola, engineer, and of
the deceased Émilie Aubert. Husband of Madame Alexandrine Gabrielle
Zola, _née_ Meley. In testimony of which the declaring witnesses have
signed with us, LABORI, M. DUTARD, ----, mayor.
C
NOTE ON SOME ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF ZOLA'S NOVELS
Some information respecting the first editions, etc., of Zola's
writings has been given in a number of foot-notes in the course of
the present volume. That information is by no means exhaustive, but
pending the appearance of a complete bibliography, which will surely
be undertaken before long, it may be acceptable to various readers and
book-collectors. For the convenience of those who are unacquainted
with French, the author here appends a list of the translations in
the English language which are known to him. Unfortunately he has
no acquaintance with the great majority of those issued in America.
Should the present volume be reprinted, and information concerning
American translations be supplied to him through his publisher, he will
endeavour to include it in a future edition. He may mention now that
he believes several translations of merit have been made in the United
States by Mr. Benjamin R. Tucker.
With respect to the English translations those published by Vizetelly
& Co. between 1884 and 1889 were the following: "The Fortune of the
Rougons," "The Rush for the Spoil" ("La Curée"), "A Love Episode" ("Une
Page d'Amour"), "Fat and Thin" ("Ventre de Paris"), "The Conquest of
Plassans," "Abbé Mouret's Transgression," "His Excellency E. Rougon,"
"The Assommoir," "Nana," "Piping-Hot" ("Pot-Bouille"), "The Ladies'
Paradise" ("Au Bonheur des Dames"), "How Jolly Life is!" ("La Joie
de Vivre"), "Germinal," "His Masterpiece" ("L'Œuvre"), "The Soil"
("La Terre"), "Madeleine Férat," "Thérèse Raquin," and "A Soldier's
Honour" (short stories). All the above were issued in crown octavo
form. There were also large octavo editions of "Nana," "The Assommoir,"
and "Piping-Hot," each with about one hundred illustrations. The
smaller volumes also contained illustrations or frontispieces. After
the first proceedings at law against the publishers, most of the
above translations were re-expurgated and reissued. The reissues
were distinguished from the earlier editions by the words "A new
Edition," and by the heading "The Rougon-Macquart Family," I, II, III,
etc., which heading does not appear on the title-pages of the first
and fuller editions. There was, however, no such reissue of "Nana,"
"Piping-Hot," and "The Soil." In some early catalogues "Claude's
Confession" was announced by the firm, but the writer does not find
that it was ever published. The above translations are all out of
print, with the exception of "The Soil," which is sold _in France
only_ by the proprietor of the copyright of that translation (Paris,
Flammarion). In consequence of the conviction of Henry Vizetelly it may
not be sold in the British dominions.
The English translations now in circulation in Great Britain are
enumerated below. Here and there in the list the writer has mentioned
some American editions known to him. In the case of the Rougon-Macquart
series the order in which the volumes are placed is that in which they
should be read.
ROUGON-MACQUART SERIES.
I. "The Fortune of the Rougons," edited with an introduction
by Ernest A. Vizetelly. London, Chatto and Windus, St.
Martin's Lane.
II. "His Excellency" ("Son Exc. E. Rougon"), edited, etc., by
E. A. Vizetelly. London, Chatto. The same, published in New
York by the Macmillan Co.
"La Curée" should follow here, but there is no English
version on sale.
III. "Money" ("L'Argent"), translated by E. A. Vizetelly.
London, Chatto.
IV. "The Dream" ("Le Rêve"), translated by Eliza E. Chase.
Eight illustrations. London, Chatto.
V. "The Conquest of Plassans," edited, etc., by E. A.
Vizetelly. London, Chatto.
"Pot-Bouille" should follow here, but no English version is
in circulation.
VI. "The Ladies' Paradise" ("Au Bonheur des Dames"), edited,
etc., by E. A. Vizetelly. Frontispiece. London, Hutchinson &
Co., Paternoster Row.
VII. "Abbé Mouret's Transgression," edited, etc., by E. A.
Vizetelly. London, Chatto.
VIII. "A Love Episode" ("Une Page d'Amour"), translated by E.
A. Vizetelly. Ninety-four illustrations. London, Hutchinson.
IX. "The Fat and the Thin" ("Le Ventre de Paris"), translated
by E. A. Vizetelly. London, Chatto.
X. "The Joy of Life," edited, etc., by E. A. Vizetelly.
London, Chatto.
XI. "The Dram Shop" ("L'Assommoir"), edited, etc., by E. A.
Vizetelly. London, Chatto.
XII. "His Masterpiece" ("L'Œuvre"), edited, etc., by E. A.
Vizetelly. London, Chatto.
XIII. "The Monomaniac" ("La Bête Humaine"), translated by
Edward Vizetelly (see _ante_, p. 248, foot-note). London,
Hutchinson.
XIV. "Germinal," edited by E. A. Vizetelly. London, Chatto.
"Nana" should follow here, but no English version of the
slightest value is in circulation, though of this and a few
other volumes there are some paltry adaptations, which omit
from a third to half of those works as they stand in the
original French.
After "Nana" should come "La Terre," no English version of
which is sold in Great Britain.
XV. "The Downfall" ("La Débâcle"), translated by E. A.
Vizetelly. London, Chatto.
An American translation, under the same title, by E. P.
Robins, was published by the Cassell Co., New York, 1893. The
Macmillan Co. also catalogues a translation, perhaps the same.
XVI. "Doctor Pascal," translated by E. A. Vizetelly. London,
Chatto.
An American translation by Mary J. Serrano is published by
the Macmillan Co., New York.
The "TROIS VILLES" series: I, "Lourdes," II, "Rome," and III,
"Paris," as translated by Ernest A. Vizetelly, is published
in London by Chatto and Windus, in New York by the Macmillan
Co.
Of Zola's last series, "LES QUATRE ÉVANGILES," only three
volumes were issued, the translations being as follows:
I. "Fruitfulness" ("Fécondité"), translated by E. A.
Vizetelly. London, Chatto; New York, Doubleday.
II. "Work" ("Travail"), translated by E. A. Vizetelly.
London, Chatto.
An American translation called "Labor" is issued by Messrs.
Harper, New York.
III. "Truth" ("Vérité"), translated by E. A. Vizetelly.
London, Chatto; New York, John Lane.
There are also the following translations of Zola's
miscellaneous novels and short stories:----
I. "Thérèse Raquin," translated by Edward Vizetelly, London,
Grant Richards.
II. "A Dead Woman's Wish" ("Le Vœu d'une Morte"), translated
by Count C. S. de Soissons. London, Greening.
III. "The Mysteries of Marseilles," translated by Edward
Vizetelly. London, Hutchinson.
IV. "The Honour of the Army and other Stories" ("Le Capitaine
Burle," "Naïs Micoulin," "Nantas," etc.), edited by E. A.
Vizetelly. London, Chatto. This volume is not identical with
the one called "A Soldier's Honour," formerly published by
Vizetelly & Co., some of the tales contained in the latter
having been omitted, and others added.
V. "Stories for Ninon" ("Contes à Ninon" and "Nouveaux Contes
à Ninon"), translated by Edward Vizetelly. 2 vols. London,
Heinemann.
VI. "The Attack on the Mill," etc. London, Heinemann.
One may also mention Zola's "Letters to France" (Dreyfus
case), introduction by L. F. Austin. London and New York,
John Lane.