Part 11 (2/2)
But indeed all the book is 's _Voyage to Lisbon_ ”To the English-speaking world,” concludes Mr Colvin, ”he has left behind a treasure which it would be vain as yet to attempt to esti and inspiriting of exae of memory more vivid and ” Very few men of our tiret None have repined less at their own fate--
”This be the verse you grave for ed to be; Home is the sailor, home from the sea, And the hunter home from the hill'”
M ZOLA
Sept 23, 1892 La Debacle
To what different issues two ine this world to be a flat board accurately parcelled out into squares, and you have the basis at once of _Alice through the Looking-Glass_ and of _Les Rougon-Macquart_ But for the lishman happened to be whimsical and the Frenchainst this), we -glass, and a natural and social history of Alice in _parterres_ of existence labelled _Drink, War, Money_, etc As it is, in drawing up any comparison of these triters we should remember that Mr Carroll sees the world in sections because he chooses, M Zola because he cannot help it
If life were aa Balzac But I invite the reader who has just laid down _La Debacle_ to pick up _Eugenie Grandet_ again and say if that little Dutch picture has notfuries of life, than the detonating _Debacle_ The older genius
”Saw life steadily and sahole”
--No matter how small the tale, he draws no curtain around it; it stands in the ht of day M Zola sees life in sections and by one or another of those colors into which daylight can be decos with a liht apparatus The rays fall now here, now there, upon the stage; are luridly red or vividly green; but neither mix nor pervade
I araph is pontifical and its substance a trifle obvious, and a as an impressionist, I can only say that _La Debacle_ stifles me And this is the effect produced by all his later books Each has the exclusiveness of a dream; its subject--be it drink or war or htmare possesses the dreamer For the time this place of wide prospect, the world, puts up its shutters; and life becomes all drink, all war, all money, while M Zola (adaptable Bacchanal!) surrenders his brain to the intoxication of his latest they, or veterinary surgery, or railway technicalities--everything by turns and everything long; but, like the gentleman in the comic opera, he ”never mixes” Of late he almost ceased to add even a dash of hu _La Debacle_ in the _Fortnightly_ last month, laments this He re away in his latest work
”Jean and Maurice,” says Mr Moore, ”have fought side by side; they have alternately saved each other's lives; war has united therasped each other's hands, and looked in each other's eyes, overpowered with a love that exceeds the love that woed on different sides, arainst the other
The idea is a fine one, and it is to be deeply regretted that M
Zola did not throw history to the winds and develop the beautiful human story of the division of friends in civil war Never would history have tempted Balzac away from the human passion of such a subject”
But it is just fidelity to the huives the novelist his rank; that e or two of Balzac, when Balzac is dealing with ent_
Of Burke it has been said by a critic horee, that he kne the whole world lived
”It was Burke's peculiarity and his glory to apply the iination of a poet of the first order to the facts and business of life Burke's iislator devising nes, the judge expounding and enforcing old ones, thehis credit, the banker advancing the money of his custoalthe store which is to support hie, the ancient institutions of Church and University with their seeion, the parson in his pulpit, the poet pondering his rhy his canvases, the player educating the feelings Burke saw all this with the fancy of a poet, and dwelt on it with the eye of a lover”
Now all this, which is true of Burke, is true of the very first literary artists--of Shakespeare and Balzac All this, and more--for they not only see all this immense activity of life, but the emotions that animate each of the myriad actors
Suppose theoods and hts, the fierce adventures by desert and seas, the slow toil at home, upon which the foundations of commerce are set Like the Gods,
”They see the ferry On the broad, clay-laden Lone Chorasmian strealy swi, tow The ferry-boat, oven ropes To either bow Firm-harness'd by the mane; a chief, With shout and shaken spear, Stands at the prow, and guides the robes, Sit pale beside their wealth”
Like the Gods, they see all this; but, unlike the Gods, they must feel also:--
”They see the merchants On the Oxus stream;--_but care Must visit first the sand, A cloud of desert robber-horse have burst Upon their caravan; or greedy kings, In the wall'd cities the way passes through, Crush'd thee, Mown them down, far from home”