Then followed a period of deep misery, but a period which must
have greatly influenced the work of the future novelist. Wandering the
streets by day and, when he could find money to buy a candle, writing
poems and short stories by night, he was gaining that experience in the
school of life of which he was later to make such splendid use. Meantime
his wretchedness was deep. A miserable lodging in a garret, insufficient
food, inadequate clothing, and complete absence of fire may be an
incentive to high endeavour, but do not render easy the pathway of
fame. The position had become all but untenable when Zola received
an appointment in the publishing house of M. Hachette, of Paris, at
a salary beginning at a pound a week, but soon afterwards increased.
During the next two years he wrote a number of short stories which were
published later under the title _Contes a Ninon_. The book did not prove
a great success, though its undoubted ability attracted attention to the
writer and opened the way to some journalistic work. About this time he
appears to have been studying Balzac, and the recently published _Madame
Bovary_ of Flaubert, which was opening up a new world not only in French
fiction, but in the literature of Europe.
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