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New Light on Zola and Physiognomy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

E. Paul Gauthier
E. Paul Gauthier*
Affiliation:
Marquette University, Milwaukee 3, Wis.
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Extract

The great importance which Emile Zola gave to physical appearance in character portrayal is well known. It seems to have escaped notice, however, that as a source of material Zola evidently tapped a curious body of pseudo-scientific theories even before he undertook the composition of the Rougon-Macquart series. These theories concern physiognomy, the recognition of character through a study of the permanent form of the human features. Exploitation of a striking corollary to this same study, evident in almost all of the Rougon-Macquart novels, is especially noted in La Fortune des Rougon and in La Bête humaine. Zola applied to creative literature the most fantastic theory of certain physiognomists: the claim that human resemblances to various animals are highly significant indices to the recognition of character.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 75 , Issue 3 , June 1960 , pp. 297 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1960

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References

1 In order to avoid proliferation of footnotes I have indicated in parentheses after the quotation the page reference in the Bernouard edition of Zola's works or the Conard edition of Balzac's works, as applicable.

2 See Scipio Sighele, Littérature et Criminalité, transl. from Italian by Erick Adler (Paris, Giard & Briere, 1908), p. 84, on physical features which characterize criminals.

3 Conference sur I'expression generate et particuliere des passions (Paris, Picart, 1698).

4 “Abrégé d'une conference sur la physionomie,” quoted in Henry Jouin, Charles Le Brun et les arts sous Louis XIV (Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1889), p. 391.

5 Encyclopédie (Neufchastel, Samuel Faulche et Cie, 1765), xii, 538.

6 Gaspar Lavater, L'Art de connaitre les hommes par la physionomie. Nouvelle edition augmented d'une Exposition des recherches ou des opinions de La Chambre, de Porta, de Camper, de Gall, sur la physionomie, d'une histoire anato-mique et physiologique de la face… par M. Moreau (de la Sarthe), 10 tomes en 5 vol. (Paris, Depelafol, 1820).

7 Letter of 20 Aug. 1822 (to his sister), quoted by Fernand Baldensperger, Orientations étrangères chez Balzac (Paris, Champion, 1927), pp. 84 and 93.

8 L'Art de connaitre les hommes, iv, 146–148.

9 G. L. L., comte de Buffon, Histoire naturelle generate et particuliere, 2e id. (Paris, Imprimerie royale, 1750), ii, 535. In the Encyclopedie, Diderot also quotes this passage in his second entry under PHYSIONOMIE in support of his claim that physiognomy is a “science ridicule.”

10 Quoted in Sighele, p. 96.

11 Quoted in Sighele, p. 96.

12 Quoted in Sighele, p. 83.

13 Quoted in Sighele, pp. 83–84.

14 Fernand Baldensperger, Orientations Urangeres chez Balzac (Paris, Champion, 1927), p. 82.

15 F. W. J. Hemmings, Entile Zola (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1953), p. 140. On p. 20 of the work cited, Hemmings mentions an essay, “On Science and Civilization in their Relations with Poetry,” in which Zola says: “Let us turn ourselves into scientists, let us take over from the sciences their wide horizons, their hypotheses so admirable that it is difficult not to believe them true….” As the almost certain source of inspiration for this statement Hemmings points to a declaration made by Michelet in L'Amour: “Science is the mistress of the world. She reigns, without needing to issue commands. The Church and the Law must inform themselves of her decisions, and reform themselves accordingly.”

16 Quoted in Roland Barthes, Michelet par lui-mtme (Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1954), p. 41.

17 Quoted in Barthes, p. 96.

18 Jules Michelet, Eistoire de la Revolution Vrancaise (Paris, Le Vasseur, n.d.), v, 14.

19 Quoted in Barthes, p. 118.

20 The Insect, translated by W. H. D. Adams (London, Nelson, 1875), p. 161.

21 Traiti philosophique et physiologique de I'her&dite' naturelle dans les Hats de santt et de maladie du systeme nerveux, 2 vols. (Paris, J. B. Bailliere, 1847–50).

22 Hemmings, p. 39.

23 Love, translated by J. W. Palmer, (New York, Rudd & Carleton, 1859), pp. 339–341. Michelet's lengthy note 4, “Of the Sources of this Book of Love, and of the Support that Physiology herein lends Morality,” refers to Lucas as “a man of superior and excellent mind” and describes his treatise (Physical Transmission) as “an important and capital work.”

24 Traite de l'hir(diti naturelle, n, 12.

25 ii, 169. In a footnote to this page Lucas refers the reader to della Porta's De humana physiognomonia, Lib. I, cap. iii & iv.

26 Entile Zola, p. 42.

27 The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, new ed. (New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1897), Part ii, Chapter viii.

28 See “Notes et commentaires” to La Fortune des Rougon (Paris, Bernouard, n.d.), p. 350.

29 Ed. reprinted from the 6th London Ed. (New York, Lovell, Coryell & Co., n.d.), p. 11.

30 Authorized ed. (New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1897), pp. 1 and 4, as well as note on p. 245. In the same work Lavater is mentioned on pp. 1, 3, 210, and 245.