Looking backwards it is
difficult to see why such an outcry should have arisen about such a
masterpiece of literature, but water has flowed beneath many bridges
since 1877, and, largely by the influence of Zola's own work, the limits
of convention have been widely extended. At the time, however, the
work was savagely attacked, and to the author the basest motives
were assigned, while libels on his own personal character were freely
circulated. Zola replied to these attacks in a manner so calm and so
convincing that quotation may be permitted. "It would be well," he said,
"to read my novels, to understand them, to see them clearly in their
entirety, before bringing forward the ready-made opinions, ridiculous
and odious, which are circulated concerning myself and my works. Ah!
if people only knew how my friends laugh at the appalling legend which
amuses the crowd! If they only knew how the blood-thirsty wretch, the
formidable novelist, is simply a respectable bourgeois, a man devoted to
study and to art, living quietly in his corner, whose sole ambition is
to leave as large and living a work as he can.
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