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Zola's theory and practice in the genealogical novel Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Wright, Grace, 1901- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 09/10/2021 21:03:44 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/553467 ZOLA'S THEORY AND PRACTICE IN THE GENEALOGICAL NOVEL , - -^ " " . ••• > •• - •; *.• .* '■ -«■ -• -r *. ■'» r * * < > Grace Wright fv - ..- - .• A TTieala submitted to the faculty of the .Bep&rtii^nt of English - / . v ' ■■■■:' ia partial fulfillment of -: ’ ' - - - - - : ~ \ : , the requirements for the degree of ;i m a t e r of Arts in the Graduate College University of Arizona 1 9 3 9 Approved! A 0 , M 3 1 Auvleer $ b$ tatmtOAas o t a raoaBY ?’ajos «R m K JAOItX5U.X31QED ***,0 A * .. ajiA lc •333X/0O odd r*i s a o 1o vdls ievittU Q A 0 £ W 1 ' / > ;■ r tuyj; 2- TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. PREPARING FOR THE EXPERIMENT 12 1. The Method 2. The Defining of the Purpose 3. The Selection of the Material III. FORMATION OF THE TWO BRANCHES 21 1. Inherited Characteristics 2. Differences IV. THE GROUP EXPERIMENT 33 1. Subjecti The Family 2. Environmental Changes The Coup d*Etat 3. Reactions V. INDIVIDUAL EXPERIMENTS WITH THE THIRD GENERATION 1. Eugbne 2. Aristide and Sidonie 3. Marthe and Francois 4. H61fene 5. Lisa 6. Gervaise 7. Jean VI. EXPERIMENTS ON THE FOURTH GENERATION....... 76 1. Jeanne 2. Octave 3. Serge 4. Desiree 5. Pauline and Nana 6. Claude 7. Etienne 1 j??F87 Chapter 8. Jaequee 9. AngSlique 10. Maxim© 11. Clotilda - ■■ ■ ■ • 12. Victor '■ ■ ; ; ' ' •' VII. RESULTS OF THE EXPERIMENT ...................... 114 VIII. CONCLUSION .............................•....... U 8 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................... ISO 11 CHAPTER I IHTRODTJGTIOI Salle 2Sola, ncweliafc and refomer, began his literary career In France shortly after the. middle of the nineteenth century when Hie intelleetual world had become definitely selentiflc in outlook. It was the age when Darwin was revo­ lutionizing thinking with M s theories of evolution, when Talne was. advocating scientific criticism in literature, and when Balzac, Flaubert, and the Qonoourts were breaking from the traditional romantic pattern to write more realistic flc- !-!!!/ ■ Zola *s idea was to go further than any of M s pred#- : oessors had done to achieve reality in the novel. He sought to give a photographic reproduction of life sparing none of its sad or even disgusting details. Vihen his works began to appear, the public, accustomed to the pleasing and diverting tales of the romanticists, was enraged at the grossness of their reality. Undaunted by criticism, he began work on a long series of novels, which would crush by the weight of their reality all opposition to the new kind of fiction. In 1865, when Zola was writing the third novel of hie aeries. Dr. Claude Bernard's treatise. Introduction a 1*Etude de la M§deoine ExpSrimentale. came to his attention. The publication of this famous work, which was to revolutionize 8 mediotoe, proved timely from Zola’s point of view. Besides suggesting that he publish his theories of the novel in vin- dication of M s work, it actually furnished M m with argu­ ments to support his theories. The purpose of Dr. Bernard’s treatise was to advocate the use of the experimental method in the practice of medi­ cine. He did not lay claim to originating a new method; he was simply attempting to show that the method of the chemist and the physicist, who deal with inanimate bodies, could be used to advantage by the physician in his work with living bodies. Zola maintained that the method should he carried a step further into the field of literature, the province of which is the minds and passions of men. The purpose of this essay Is to explain how Zola formu­ lated his theories of the scientific novel; and then to dem­ onstrate in detail how he applied these theories to M s most important work, the Rougon-Macquart series of novels. When Zola began to write, the French realistic novel mas still in the early stages of its development. In the eighteenth century Le Sage had published M s picaresque romance, Gil Bias, which, with its loosely knit chain of adventures, bore little resemblance to the novel as it has since come to be known. Then came Voltaire and Rousseau, who used the novel as a vehicle for their ideas: the one for an attack on the absurdities of religious and political government; the other to popularise his hew and democratic 3 conception of man# It was Chateaubriand who established the novel as its own raison d*8tre. It so happened that his interest in mediaeval monarchism and Christianity, together with his travels to foreign countries - north America, England, Holland, and the far East - furnished him with, material romantic in nature. Many writers followed him to make up the Romantic school, the most outstanding of whom was Victor Hugo. A prolific writer, Hugo furnished French readers with frequent and excel­ lent examples of romanticism at its peak. Among others were George Sand, Madame de Sta&l, Dumas, Stend^hl, and Mdrlm^e, the latter particularly in his early work. Mdrimde and Stenda^l showed qualities of keen analysis, however, which pointed to the later scientific writers. Where Dumas and Hugo, for example, occupied themselves with the novel of inci­ dent, these later writers showed more interest In character. Of these transitional novelists. Honors de Balzac, who Is usually claimed for the Romantic school, was the most cele­ brated. In La Ccaaddle Humaine. a long series of novels, he sought to depict all the passions that govern human beings. It was his method to take a primary passion, put It in a human body, and set it to work Itself out in visible action. From this series Zola took his Inspiration for the Rougon- Maoquart series, using hereditary tendencies instead of the dominant passim. Balzac’s employment of facts obtained through observation, the force of his analysis, tide use of detail transport one from the world of the imagination to 4 that of science. Although the public was becoming accustomed to a change in tho novel, it was scandalized when Flaubert brought out his definitely realistic Madame Bovary* In spite of the hor­ ror Inspired by scenes such as that at Emma's deathbed, the book was a great success* Its readers, no doubt, recognized in It at the time the qualities of perfection which make it a masterpiece. So careful of his phrasing was Flaubert that he spent hours searching for the right word. The same can be said of his attention to structure. It was good for the ;. ' • „; ■ ■ - v ■- . - ■ cause of realism that Madame Bovary should have had such qualities of intrinsic Redness• In Salaambo, Flaubert offers an Illustration of another method of writing a novel, a method which was to be used to a great extent by Zola and the naturalists - the use of docu­ ments of all kinds as a means of securing accuracy of detail. ■ ■ :■ • - V '■ ■ : : - . - , His subject lent Itself perfectly to his experiment. Car­ thage, about which so little Is known by the modern world, was reconstructed through documents and made the scene of his story. He visited the ruins of the ancient city to get what first-hand information there was to he had. Next, he studied the Bible, Theophrastus, Maroellinus, and other his­ torians for the details of customs, of architecture, of re­ ligious rites, and for perfumes, Punic names, etc. Then he fitted into this background his story, striving to keep it in harmony with the documentary evidence. 6 Like Flaubert, the Goncourt brother#* Jules and Edmond, bequeathed to Zola and his followers sorae doeuraested work. They did a aeries of studies on the sixteenth century in France, using as their documents autographed letters, scraps of costumes, engravings, and songs. Unfortunately they did not succeed in handing doen the best part of their method, the artist1a prerogative to select from his data. In their fiction, the Goncourt brothers were more in - - ' - ■ - ■ : . : •. • ; ; : - . • '. - . : accord with the ideas Zola was to present. They chose sor- did subjects and held to simplicity in plot. They laid claim toward the end of the century to being the founders of the school of naturalism. As in the field of creative literature, a movement in the scientific direction had been made among the critics. S&lnte-Beuve laid down the first principles of a more scien­ tific method in criticism. Instead of following cut-and- dried standards which the critic either outlined himself or formulated from traditional beliefs, Sainte-Beuve judged an author from a study of his life, circumstances, aims, and literary aspirations. He approached the subject of his in­ vestigations through his admirers and through his antago­ nists, getting every possible point of view on him. Thine following Sainte-Beuve enlarged and systematized these ideas. In his introduction to a History of English Literature. he says: 6 A literary work Is not a mere play of the Imagina­ tion, the Isolated eaprlee of an exalted man, hut ^ traaserlpt of contemporary manners and customs and the sign of a particular state of mind.I _Bae author*s method tiiould he observation with “tiie eyes of his head.® So .a.picture of the visible .nan is arrived at. Then, through applying psychology to his own observations. the Invisible man is deduced, m Talne*s own words: You have observed the house in which he lives to discover his habits and traits; you have listened to his conversation to judge his spirit; you con­ sider his works of art to measure the limits of his Intelligence • All these externals are ave- n m s converging to <me center.

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