Publisher's Synopsis
Book Excerpt: allacy of the argument has beenexposed by more than one critic. It is self-evident that the"experiments" by the novelist cannot be made on subjects apart fromhimself, but are made by him and in him; so that they prove moreregarding his own temperament than about what he professes to regardas the inevitable actions of his characters. The conclusion drawn by awriter from such actions must always be open to the retort that heinvented the whole himself and that fiction is only fiction. But toZola in the late sixties the theory seemed unassailable and it wasupon it that he founded the whole edifice of /Les Rougon-Macquart/.The considerations then that influenced Zola in beginning a series ofnovels connected by subject into one gigantic whole were somewhatvarious. There was the example of Balzac's great /Comedie Humaine/;there was the desire of working out the theories of heredity in whichhe had become interested; there was the opportunity of putting intooperation the system which he had termed /natuRead More
