[8] Probably in March, 1898. "La Vérité en Marche," pp. 251-253.
[11] This idea has suggested itself to many people, and, curiously enough, is embodied in a five-act drama entitled "Fatalité," by M. Eugène Quènemeur, produced at Nantes in March, 1903, with Parisian artists in the chief parts. The play is a strange blending of François Zola's adventure and the Dreyfus case.
[12] "Le Père d'Émile Zola," pp. 176, 177.
[13] The birthplace also of the famous La Bruyère of the "Caractères," and of Francisque Sarcey, the eminent French critic.
[14] At the time referred to, this house was No. 10 _bis_ (or as one would put it in England, 10 _a_) in the street. But owing to various changes it has become the only No. 10. M. Mongrédien's publishing business, and the offices of a popular weekly, "La Semaine illustrée," are now (1903) installed in the house, the accompanying view of which is from a photograph taken under exceptional difficulties (owing to the extreme narrowness of the street) by the author's friend, M. Auguste Waser, architect, of Paris.
[15] See _post_, Appendix A. Declaration of the birth of Émile Zola.
François Zola in Paris--A rebuff and a success--Progress of his canal scheme--He is struck down by the "mistral" and dies--His obsequies and his grave--Difficulties of his widow and son--Lawsuits--Aix, a city of Philistines or of enlightenment?--Émile Zola, a spoilt child--His first schooling and first chums--He plays the truant--Declining family circumstances--Zola is sent to the Aix College--His many prizes, and his first literary attempts--The college and its masters--Zola, Baille, and Cézanne; their pranks and their rambles--The country round Aix--Zola's lines on Provence--He is influenced by Hugo and Musset--Ideal love: Gratienne and Ninon--Increasing family penury--Madame Zola seeks help in Paris--She is joined there by her son--Zola at the Lycée St. Louis--He is "ploughed" for a degree in Paris--His vacations in Provence--Early poetry--He is "ploughed" at Marseilles--His studies stopped--A gloomy outlook.
The infancy of Émile Zola was spent in Paris, his father's enterprises compelling the family to remain there till 1843. Throughout 1840 the engineer was preparing plans of his fortification scheme, issuing pamphlets, corresponding with Thiers, and interviewing General Despans-Cubières, Minister of War. He renewed his efforts when Thiers fell from power and was succeeded by Marshal Soult; but he was unable to overcome the stolid indifference of General Dode, the war-office director of fortifications, who, without even examining his plans, reported against them on the ground that the government and the defence committee had made up their minds four years previously with respect to what system should be adopted. As Soult accepted this view of the matter, Zola's efforts again came to nothing. His only consolation was that, early in 1841, when the Paris fortification bill was finally discussed by the legislature, his ideas found supporters in General Schneider and M. Dufaure, a subsequent prime minister of France.[1] A better result attended Zola's invention of an appliance for removing the masses of earth, which, he foresaw, would be thrown up in digging the moat of the Paris rampart. He patented this invention in June, 1841, and after his appliance had been constructed at some works in the Rue de Miromesnil in 1842, it was employed successfully in the excavations at Clignancourt.[2]