M. ZOLA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7413, 1 October 1902, Page 2

M. ZOLA.

Eji-_k Zola, whose tragic end was re-p-rtcd rot our cablegrams yesterday, was brought into great prominence recently by his courage in connection with the Dreyfus c_se, and his .bold condemnation of the sentence under which the unhappy prisoner suffered. Zola began his career as a j .urnalist, but soon gave himself up to novel writing, and an undue catering, as some think, to a morbid interest of the seamy side of life, to which lie addressed himself wiih great vigor, and not a little, graphic power, but in.an entire misconception of his pro.er functions as an artist and a man of letters, (hough it maybe pleaded, hehas done so from a '.tiong conviction on his part that his duty hiy the other way, and tlut it was high line literature should address itself to exposing by depicting it, the extent to which the evil genius ;s gnawing at aud corroding the vitals of French society. We do not suppose for a moment that /..la's peculiar pen pictures gave him pleasure, . but we hardly think the world is much richer for tho description of writing mentioned. Of lato years M. Zola's novels have been of a more acceptable nature.