He then began a second story called _Le Vaeu d'une Morte_ in the same
newspaper. It was intended to please the readers of _L'Evenement_, but
from the first failed to do so, and its publication was stopped before
it was half completed. Soon afterwards _L'Evenement_ was incorporated
with the _Figaro_, and Zola's connection with it terminated. A time of
hardship again began, and during the year 1867 the wolf was only kept
from the door by unremitting toil of the least agreeable kind. In the
midst of his difficulties Zola wrote two books simultaneously, one
supremely good and the other unquestionably bad. The one was _Therese
Raquin_, and the other _Les Mysteres de Marseille_. The latter, which
was pure hack-work, was written to the order of the publisher of a
Marseillaise newspaper, who supplied historical material from researches
made by himself at the Marseilles and Aix law courts, about the various
_causes celebres_ which during the previous fifty years had attracted
the most public attention. These were to be strung together, and by an
effort of legerdemain combined into a coherent whole in the form of a
novel.
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