ZOLA'S NOVELS.

West Coast Times, Issue 7235, 5 January 1889, Page 4

ZOLA'S NOVELS.

(To the Editor .)

Sir,—" Timely Warning " is one of a large army who has written on the question of the publication of Z ila's novels. Now, why they should aim particularly at this author's works is to many a matter of wonderment Mr Vizitelly, who is the English publisher of tbe Frenchman's works, has recently been fined £200 for publishing a work entitled " La Terre " by that author, and the case has called forth much argument pro and con. " Timely Warning " has given you an expression of en opinion from an English paper, and as it appears to me there are two sides to the question I would like to trouble you with a extract or two; The first one is Mr Henry James on "Nana," one of Zola's early and most widely read books. Mr James writes : —

"... We have no space to devote to a general consideration of M. Zola's theory of the business of a novelist, or to tbe question of naturalism at large, mucb further than to say that the system on which the series of Lea Rougon-Macquart' hat? been written, contains, to our sense, a great deal of very solid ground. M. Zola's attempt is an extremely fine one ; it de« serves a great deal of respect and deference, and though bis theory is constantly at odds with itself, we could, at a pinch, go a long way with it without quarrelling. What we quarrel with is his application of it — is the fact that he presents us with his decootion of ' nature ' in a vessel unfit for tbe purpose, a receptacle lamentably, fatally, in need of Boouring (though no Ecouriag, apparently, would be really effective) f and in which no article intended for intellectual consumption should ever be served up. "Reality is the object of M. Zola's efforts, and it is because we agree with him in appreciating it highly that we protest against its being discredited. In a time when literary taste has turned, to a regrettable degree, to the vulgar and tbe inßipid, it is of high importance that realism should not be compromised. Nothing tends more to compromise it than to represent It as necessarily allied to the impure. That the impure and the pure are for M. Zola, as conditions of taste, vain words and exploded ideas, only proves that bis advocacy does more to injure an excellent cause than to serve it. . . . Go as far as we will, so far as we abide in literature, the thing remains always a question of taste, and we can never leave taste behind, without leaving behind, by tbe same stroke, the very grounds on which, we appeal, the whole human side of the bviinees. Taste, in its intellectual applications, is the most human faculty we possess, and as the novel may be eaid to be the most human form of art, it is a poor speculation to put the two things out of conceit of each other, Calling it naturalism wi'l never make it profitable. . . . " To us English readers, I venture to think, the subject is very interesting, because it raises questions which no one apparently has the energy or the good faith to raiie among ourselves. (It is of distioctly serious readers only that I speak, ' Nana ' is to be recommended exclusively to such as have a very robust appetite for a moral.) A novelist with a system, a passionate conviction, a great plan — incontestable attributes of M, Zola —is not now to be easily found in England or the United States, where the storyteller's art is almost exclusively feminine, is mainly in tbe hands of timid (even when very accomp'ished) women, whose acquaintance with life is severely restricted, and who are not conspicuous for general views. The novel, moreover, among ourselves, is almost always addressed to young unmarried ladies, or at least always assumes them to be a large part of tbe novelist's public. "This faot, ti a French story- teller, api pears of conrse a damnable restriction, and M. Zola would probably decline to take an seneux any work produced under iuch uDnatursl conditions. Half of life is a sealed book to young unmarried ladies, and how can a novel be worth anything that deals only with half of life ? How can a portrait be painted (in any way to be recognizable) of half a face ? It is not in one eye, but in the two eyes together that the expression resides, and it is the com* bination of features that constitutes the human identity. These objections are perfectly valid, and it may be said that our English system is a good thing for virgins and boyi, and a bad thing for the novel Itself, when tbe novel is regarded ag something more than a simple ,/eu tfetprit and considered as a composition that treats of life at large and helps us to know" Of " Piping Hot," another extensively read book of Zola'e, another English novelist says :— » •' We must judge a padding by the eating, not by other people's sentiment?, and I think tbe pungent odour of life "Piping Hot " exhales, as well as its scorching satire on the middle classes, will be relished by all who prefer the fortifying brutalities of troth to tbe soft platitudes of lies. As a satire, " Pipfog Hot " must be read ; and as a satire It will rank with Juvenal, Voltaire. Pope and Swift. < It will thus be seen that the whole question turns on education. A vulgar mind wiU find in Zola, as he finds in many other publications, matter of a most repagnant nature, but anyone who reads with the object of improving their minds will find In Zola true interpretations of life without the veil drawn across its peoadilloes. Zola's literature is on the ! same footing as the nude figures of the great sculptors, ac the scenes of great painters, as the works of great authors, | and should be considered in the same I light: If Zola is beastly, how much more is the great naked figure around which | yon see crowds of people, male and female admiring the great art. If Zola is beastly what is to be said of many passages even in the Holy Bible. Comparisons are odious, and I am of opinion that Zola is no worse than any of them, Who is to say whether we shall read life truly pourtrayed in literature or whether we shall read the romance. The very ones who should decide the question are silent for they risk their popularity. As I have taken up some considerable space I will conclude, but hope at some later date to have another opportunity of a few wordi. I am, 4c,