This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net>
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
By ALPHONSE DAUDET
With a Preface by LECONTE DE LISLE, of the French Academy
Nominally Daudet, with the Goncourts and Zola, formed a trio representingNaturalism in fiction. He adopted the watchwords of that school, and byprivate friendship, no less than by a common profession of faith, was oneof them. But the students of the future, while recognizing an obviousaffinity between the other two, may be puzzled to find Daudet's nameconjoined with theirs.
Decidedly, Daudet belonged to the Realistic School. But, above all, hewas an impressionist. All that can be observed—the individual picture,scene, character—Daudet will render with wonderful accuracy, and all hisnovels, especially those written after 1870, show an increasing firmnessof touch, limpidity of style, and wise simplicity in the use of thesources of pathetic emotion, such as befit the cautious Naturalist.Daudet wrote stories, but he had to be listened to. Feverish as hismethod of writing was—true to his Southern character he took endlesspains to write well, revising every manuscript three times over frombeginning to end. He wrote from the very midst of the human comedy; andit is from this that he seems at times to have caught the bodily warmthand the taste of the tears and the very ring of the laughter of men andwomen. In the earlier novels, perhaps, the transitions from episode toepisode or from scene to scene are often abrupt, suggesting the manner ofthe Goncourts. But to Zola he forms an instructive contrast, of the sameschool, but not of the same family. Zola is methodical, Daudetspontaneous. Zola works with documents, Daudet from the living fact.Zola is objective, Daudet with equal scope and fearlessness shows morepersonal feeling and hence more delicacy. And in style also Zola isvast, architectural; Daudet slight, rapid, subtle, lively, suggestive.And finally, in their philosophy of life, Zola may inspire a hate of viceand wrong, but Daudet wins a love for what is good and true.
Alphonse Daudet was born in Nimes, Provence, May 13, 1840. His fatherhad been a well-to-do silk manufacturer, but, while Alphonse was still achild, lost his property. Poverty compelled the son to seek the wretchedpost of usher (pion) in a school at Alais. In November, 1857, he settledin Paris and joined his almost equally penniless brother Ernest. Theautobiography, 'Le Petit Chose' (1868), gives graphic details about thisperiod. His first years of literary life were those of an industriousBohemian, with poetry for consolation and newspaper work for bread. Hehad secured a secretaryship with the Duc de Morny, President of the CorpsLegislatif, and had won recognition for his short stories in the'Figaro', when failing health compelled him to go to Algiers. Returning,he married toward that period a lady (Julia Allard, born 1847), whoseliterary talent comprehended, supplemented, and aided his own. After thedeath of the Duc de Morny (1865) he consecrated himself entirely toliterature and published 'Lettres de mon Moulin' (1868), which also madehis name favorably known. He now turned from fiction to the drama, andit was not until after 1870 that he became fully conscious of hisvocation as a novelist, perhaps through the trials of the siege of Parisand the humiliation