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Nine Letters from Émile Zola to Frans Netscher
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Few periods have been more important in the history of Dutch art and letters than the decade between 1880 and 1890. Those years saw the rise of the painters of the “Hague school”—Josef Israëls, Blommers, the Maris brothers—and a reorientation of Dutch art toward the realism of the masters of the seventeenth century. A literary renaissance of some importance accompanied this artistic revolution. Dutch authors turned more and more from the insipid idealism of earlier days toward a new realism, strongly reminiscent of that prevailing in France. Balzac, Flaubert, Maupassant, the Goncourt brothers, Zola—these were the idols of the new school. The naturalistic doctrines of Zola carried an especial appeal to the young critics and novelists, and a small but vocal group of imitators carried his banner in Holland during the years 1880–90.
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- Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1941
References
Note 1 in page 261 See P. Valkhoff, “Emile Zola et la littérature néerlandaise,” Mélanges offerts à Fernand Baldensperger (Paris: Champion, 1930), pp. 312–326; and “Le Roman moderne hollandais et le réalisme français,” Revue de Hollande, iii (1916), pp. 67–78.
Note 2 in page 261 Kolff was a music and art critic who became an almost fanatical admirer of Zola. His numerous articles in Dutch and German journals did much to bring about acceptance of the naturalistic doctrine in the Low Countries and Germany. From 1878 to 1895 he was in constant correspondence with Zola, whose letters to him form an important source of information concerning the Rougon-Macquart series; see my edition, Emile Zola's Letters to J. Van Santen Kolff, Washington University Studies, New Series, no. 10 (1940). For more information on his relationship with Zola, see P. Valkhoff, “Emile Zola en Jacques van Santen Kolff,” Haagsche Maandblad, vi (1929), 397–405.
Note 3 in page 262 The letters, of which I possess microfilm reproductions, are in an excellent state of preservation and offer few difficulties to the reader. None of the cards is dated, but by means of internal evidence I have been able to assign all of them dates which I believe to be reasonably accurate. These dates are indicated in brackets.
Note 4 in page 262 P. Valkhoff, op. cit., p. 321.
Note 5 in page 263 Germinal had appeared only three days before this letter was written, on March 2, 1885.
Note 6 in page 263 In spite of what Zola says here, he did write the drama Germinal during the summer of 1885. See his Correspondance (Paris: Bernouard, 1929), pp. 642, ff.
Note 7 in page 263 Zola is probably referring to Moore's A Mummer's Wife, which appeared in 1885.
Note 8 in page 263 Zola's impression about naturalism in Germany is probably justified. See Winthrop H. Root, German Criticism of Zola, 1875–1893 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1931), Chapter i.
Note 9 in page 263 Zola had taken his wife to Mont-Dore, where she hoped to find relief from a persistent illness. See Correspondance, loc. cit.
Note 10 in page 263 The article referred to is probably Netscher's “Wat wil het naturalisme?” (Nederland, 1885), an important exposition of the naturalistic doctrine.
Note 11 in page 263 L'Œuvre appeared in Le Gil Blas from December 23, 1885, to March 27, 1886.
Note 12 in page 263 This sentence was added to a letter published by van Santen Kolff in Le Livre Moderne, iv (1891), 144–145. Kolff evidently borrowed this sentence from the above letter in order to complete Zola's remarks to him about L'Œuvre.
Note 13 in page 264 A French translation by Mme Bernard of Moore's A Mummer's Wife was published by Charpentier in 1888; it also appeared en feuilleton in La Vie Populaire in the latter half of 1888 and the first months of 1889. Neither edition contains a preface by Zola. The latter had, however, planned to write a preface but for some unexplained reason it never appeared. Moore had used rather questionable methods in persuading Zola to write this preface, as is evident from these lines in an unpublished letter he wrote to Zola: “. . . j'ai une confession à vous faire. Pour faire une petite réclame je me suis permis de dire dans les journaux ici que le livre sera précédé par une préface par Emile Zola. Vous savez bien que la lutte est difficile pour moi et que toutes les démarches sont nécessaires pour arriver. Que j'ai dit cela ne vous engage en rien et cela m'a fait une belle réclame. Alors, cher maître, je suis pardonné, n'est-ce pas?” This letter, which is undated and which was written from Moore Hall, Ballyglass, Ireland, is now in the Bibliothèque Nationale.
Note 14 in page 264 Zola probably sent this card to Netscher in 1886, shortly after the appearance of the Studies.
Note 15 in page 265 La Terre was published in Le Gil Blas from May 29 to September 16, 1887, and was issued in book form by Charpentier on November 15, 1887.
Note 16 in page 265 This sentence was added by van Santen Kolff to a letter which he published in Le Livre Moderne, iv (1891), 84–85. Kolff had added it to the letter, which had been written to him by Zola, probably in order to complete Zola's statements about La Terre. The sentence is reproduced in the Fasquelle edition of the Correspondance (Paris, 1908), p. 275, and again in the Bernouard edition, p. 665.
Note 17 in page 265 This card was probably written during the publication en feuilleton of La Bêle humaine (La Vie Populaire, November 14, 1889–March 2, 1890) and shortly before the appearance of the novel in book form (March, 1890).