FRANK NORRIS Zola as a Romantic Writers It is curious to notice how persistently M. Zola is misunderstood. How strangely he is misinterpreted even by those who conscientiously admire the novels of the “man of the iron pen.” For most people Naturalism has a vague ‘meaning. I sa sort of inner circle of realism—a kind of diamee a theory of fiction whercin things are repre sxorably, with the truthfulness of a camera. Thi shown to be far from right, that Naturalism, as understood by Zola, is but a form of romanticism after all. the novelists who profess and for instance. Howells’ characters across the street from us, they are “on our block.” We know all about them, about their affairs, and the story of their lives. One can go even farther. We ‘ourselves are Mr. Howells’ characters, so long as we are well behaved and ‘ordinary and bourgeois, so long as we are not adventurous or not rich or not unconventional. If we are otherwise, if things commence to happen to us, if ‘we killa man or two, or get mixed up in tragic affair, or do something on a large scale, such as the amassing of enormous wealth or power or fame, Mr. Howells cuts our acquaintance at once. He will none of us if we are out of = the usual ‘Thisis the real Realism. It is the smaller details of every-day lif, things are likely to happen between lunch and supper, smal] passions, restricted he Literary Crom of Prank ed. Donald Pizer. © 1964 by Donald Pier.n Frank Notis 2B ragedies of an afternoon call roman mas, dramas of the reception-r0 ere ng pe of en. Every one wil admit ere isn Toman here. romaniss, Hogo, We have the same ge drama, che same ens cesing_which is afterall the main point— but the sniheinge ofthe extraordinary, the vs, the monstrous, Tonnmonplace ale of commonplace people made into ¢ novel of far more nstrous, than commonplace ca rot uninteresting; eis simply Ot romanti. But th nud aso eels of reals, sa strange per Naturalism is a foom of cane Ninna ea form of romans, not an inner cle of Whereis he in the Rougon-Macquart? Are such thi a sn cn ch mp in a rox ee we Hoo he chy he he en Te reat, crible dra no longer happen ang the penne of nda ad Renisence nobly those who arin he oreo ofthe marching wo = the lower amo the Towels those who har time ae a om he na, who ae ling by he ry, TH i not 1d character and episode. ey are not of our lives ‘ans, the Gil Blases, the the commonplace, the ‘or in Reme; working itself out in blood and sve are oriinay ee enor forefront of te marching word o fall bythe roadway; we must separate ourselves, we must become in mifes ne note of common people, common in so far s§ Ives, and the things that oceur in chem are common, 276 ordinary. Tet things must happen tothe characters of the naturals tale. ‘They must be verted from the ordinary, wrenched out from the qies Une fl round of My day ie, and lang into the throes of vas and terrible drama that eric oat in unleashed pasion, in blood, and in sudéon death, The org of M Zola isa word of big chings: the enormous ee formidable, the Mote ome; no teacup tragedies here, Here Nana holds her horribly, her face distorted so 2 frightful mask “ amay by the strike of coal miners of Le Vere ( in the vast and fearfal catastrophe that ‘comes a5 3 Claude Lantier, disappointed, a acknowledging te fly of his at afterlife of efor, hangs itt ns ge easel Jacques Lancer, baunted by an hereditary A Teal desires hideously distorted, cuts the throat of che he loves, ieees under the wheels of his own locomotive Jean Macquary soldier and tlle ofthe lds, is drawn into wat ‘of 1870, passes ‘hough the terrible scenes of Sedan and the Siege of Pars ‘only to bayonet three is ervest fiend and sworn brother-atarms inthe steess of the, ‘burning capi "Everything is extraordinary, imag! note of terror quivering throughout like the vibration of ap om tats and pthed diapason, Iti all romantic, a times ‘unmistakably s0, 28 in Le TRoor or Rime, closely resembling the work of the greatest of all modern. we, grotesque even, with 4 vague