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Zola's Literary Reputation in England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Clarence R. Decker
Clarence R. Decker*
Affiliation:
University of Kansas City
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Extract

In a former article, I traced the history of Balzac's literary reputation in England as an example of the persistent change in the Victorian point of view toward moral and literary questions. In spite of the vitriolic attacks of critics and moralists and the general apprehension of the reading public, Balzac ultimately was accepted in England. In the thirties, “… a baser, meaner, filthier scoundrel never polluted society”; in the nineties, he is acclaimed one of those “divine spies, for whom the world has no secrets,” who finds “spirit everywhere,” and who gives “us so much life that we are almost overpowered by it.” The fervor of the moralists in the nineties was no less than in the thirties, but the objects of their concern, and consequently their standards of judgment, had undergone radical modifications.

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Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 49 , Issue 4 , December 1934, pp. 1140 - 1153
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1934

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References

1 PMLA, xlvii, 1150–7.

2 “French Novels,” Quarterly Review (April, 1836), lvi, 69.

3 “Balzac,” Fortnightly Review (May 1, 1899), lxxi, 745.

4 “Note on a Question of the Hour,” Athenaeum (June 16, 1877), pp. 767–768.

5 H. Schütz Wilson, “L'Assommoir,” Gentlemen's Magazine (December, 1878), xx, 745.

6 Reprinted in Collected Papers and Essays of George Saintsbury 1924), iv, 25.

7 “The Comédie Française et M. Zola,” Gentlemen's Magazine (July, 1879), xxiii, 60–73.—See also “Literary Bohemians,” Blackwoods (Jan., 1883), cxxxiii, 116–126.

8 “The Age of Balzac,” Contemporary Review (June, 1880), xxxvii, 1004–1045.

9 “Emile Zola,” Fortnightly Review (April, 1882), xxxvii, 439 et seq.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid.

12 “Zola's Parisian Middle Classes,” Scottish Review (Sept., 1883), xxxv, 301.

13 “The New Naturalism,” Fortnightly Review (Aug., 1885), xliv, 241.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid., p. 243.

16 Ibid., p. 246.

17 “Gustave Flaubert and George Sand,” Nineteenth Century (Nov., 1886), xx, 694–704.—See also “Disease in Fiction,” op. cit., p. 590, for a discussion of the relation of science to religion.

18 Waugh, William T. Stead (Women's Temperance Publication Association, Chicago, 1886), p. 14.

19 “New Censorship in Literature,” New York Herald. London edition: July 28, 1899.—See also Shaw, Quintessence of Ibsenism (Scott: London, 1891), “The Womanly Woman,” pp. 242–300.

20 The vice squad included in its prosecutions Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Salammbo, Goncourt's Germinie Lacerteux and Renée Mauperin, Gautier's Mlle. de Maupin, Murger's Vie de Bohême, Maupassant's Bel-Ami and Une Vie, Daudet's Sappho, Bourget's Crime d'Amour and Cruelle Enigme, in fact, most of the outstanding works of the naturalist group. Some anonymous individuals declared the Mermaid Series of Old English Dramatists, thirteen volumes of which were published by Vizetelly, unfit for publication.

21 E. Vizetelly, Emile Zola (1904), pp. 242–300.

22 Ibid., pp. 267–268.

23 Ibid., p. 271.

24 Loc. cit.

25 A petition, which finally secured his release, was signed by many notable persons such as Millais, John Gilbert, Harry Furniss, George du Maurier, Henry Morley, Geddes, Gosse, Garnett, Furnivall, Symonds, Leslie Stephen, Strachey, Ellis, Buchanan, Hardy, Moore, Hall Caine, Pinero, Archer, Olive Schreiner, William Sharp, H. D. Traill, and Arthur Symons.

26 Op. cit., p. 32.

27 Fortnightly Review (January, 1888), xlix, 120–121.

28 Ibid.

29 “The Literary Creed of Emile Zola,” Time (May, 1888), xviii, 563; “M. Zola's Idée Mère,” Universal Review (May, 1888), i, 39; “Daudet,” Spectator (March 24, 1888), lxi, 417.

30 “Gustave Flaubert,” Gentlemen's Magazine (July, 1888), xli, 128.

31 “M. Daudet's Recollections,” Spectator (Sept., 1889), lxiii, 309.

32 “Emile Zola,” Contemporary Review (Jan., 1889), lv, 113.

33 Ibid.

34 PMLA, xlvii, 1150–7.

35 “Life and Letters of Gustave Flaubert,” Academy (August 3, 1895), xxviii, 85.—Compare “M. Daudet's Recollections,” Spectator (Sept., 1889), lxiii, 309; “Naturalism,” Westminster Review (Aug., 1889), cxxxii, 185–190; “Gustave Flaubert and His Work,” Saturday Review (Oct. 5, 1889), pp. 378–379; and “Correspondence de Gustave Flaubert,” Athenaeum (Aug. 3, 1889), pp. 155–156.

36 “Gustave Flaubert,” Westminster Review (Sept., 1895), cxliv, 383–391.

37 “Gustave Flaubert,” Fortnightly Review (Dec. 1, 1895), lxiv, 826.

38 “The Goncourts,” Macmillan's Magazine (Oct., 1897), lxxvi, 413–423. Comp. “The Académie des Goncourts,” Academy (June 19, 1897), lii, 635; “Goncourts vs. Realism,” Spectator (July 25, 1896), lxxvii, 110; “Edmund de Goncourt,” Fortnightly Review (Sept., 1896), lxvi, 333–350; “Edmond and Jules de Goncourt,” Academy (Dec., 1894), xlvi, 504.

39 Reprinted in The Symbolist Movement in Literature (Dutton: 1919), p. 133.

40 “An Author of the Day. Alphonse Daudet,” London Society (Oct., 1882), xlvi, 374–387.—Compare “M. Daudet on Himself,” Saturday Review (Jan. 28, 1882), pp. 109–110.

41 Reprinted in Partial Portraits (Macmillan, London, 1899), p. 225.

42 “Numa Roumestan,” Spectator (Sept. 13, 1884), lvii, 1209. See also “French Puritans,” Spectator (July 21, 1883), lvi, 367; “L'Évangéliste by A. Daudet,” Scottish Review (May, 1883), xxv, 186; “M. Daudet's Recollections,” Spectator (Sept. 7, 1889), lxiii, 304–305; “The Struggle for Life,” Saturday Review (Sept. 27, 1890), lxx, 372–373; “Parisian Darwinism,” Westminster Review (Feb., 1890), cxxxiii, 163–173; “Trente Ans de Paris,” Nineteenth Century (Aug., 1890), pp. 248–250; “Daudet,” Saturday Review (Jan. 9, 1897), lxxxiii, 43–44; “Alphonse Daudet,” Saturday Review (Dec. 25, 1897), lxxxiii, 739; “Alphonse Daudet,” Academy (Dec. 25, 1897), lii, 575–576; “Alphonse Daudet,” Contemporary Review (Feb., 1898), lxxiii, 182–193; “Daudet,” Fortnightly Review (June, 1898), lxix, 943; “Alphonse Daudet,” Macmillan's Magazine (July, 1898), lxxviii, 175–183; “Alphonse Daudet in Private Life,” Pall Mall Magazine (Nov., 1898), xvi, 293–301; “Daudet,” Living Age (Jan., 1898), ccxvi, 278; “Doctor Daudet,” Academy (June 3, 1899), lvi, 604; “The Early Years of Alphonse Daudet,” Temple Bar (Jan., 1899), lxvi, 82–96; “The French Decadence,” Quarterly Review (April, 1892), clxxiv, 479.

43 “Guy de Maupassant,” National Magazine (Aug., 1893), xxi, 817–827.

44 “Guy de Maupassant,” Temple Bar (Dec., 1894), clii, 498–505. See also “Guy de Maupassant,” Fortnightly Review (July, 1892), lviii, 257; “Maupassant,” Spectator (July 15, 1893), lxxi, 77; “The Love Letters of Guy de Maupassant,” Fortnightly Review (Sept. 1, 1897), lxviii, 571–582; “The Finest Short Story,” Academy (July 29, 1899), lvii, 107.

45 “A Delicious Celebrity,” Spectator (Sept. 30, 1893), lxxi, 427.

46 “Zola and His Work,” Westminster Review (Dec., 1893), cxl, 614.

47 “Eugene Sue and Emile Zola,” Belgravia (Feb., 1890), lxxi, 130. Comp. “Downfall of Zolaism,” Catholic World (June, 1895), lxi, 357; “Emile Zola,” Westminster Review (Jan., 1895), cxliii, 57; “Rome,” Westminster Review (Dec., 1896), cxlvi, 532; “M. Zola's Paris,” Spectator (March 12, 1898), lxxx, 378; “Zola,” Academy (March 12, 1898), liii 297–298.

48 “La Débâcle,” Fortnightly Review (Aug. 1, 1892), lviii, 204.

49 “The Moral Teaching of Zola,” Contemporary Review (Feb., 1893), lxiii, 213. Comp. “Zola's Philosophy of Life,” Fortnightly Review (Aug., 1896), pp. 257–272.

50 “Zola: The Man and His Work,” Savoy (Jan., 1896), i, 74.

51 Ibid.

52 “M. Huysmans as a Mystic,” Saturday Review (March 9, 1895), lxxix, 312–313.

53 Reprinted in The Symbolist Movement in Literature (Dutton, N. Y., 1919), pp. 278–279—See also “Whither?” Saturday Review (Aug. 8, 1896), lxxxii, 139; “Joris Karl Hysmans,” Fortnightly Review (March, 1897), lxvii, 409–424; “Huysmans,” Academy (Feb. 19, 1898), liii, 196 and (Oct. 22, 1898), lv, 126.

54 “Realism and Decadence in French Literature,” Quarterly Review (July, 1890), clxxi, 57–91. See also “The Modern French Novel,” op. cit., pp. 69–76; “English Realism and Romance,” Quarterly Review (Oct., 1891), clxxiii, 468–495; and “The French Decadence,” Quarterly Review (April, 1892), clxxiv, 479–505.