Introduction.

of

This study originated in an interest felt in the influence of science, especially the theory of evolution, as seen in some of the English novels of the later Victorian era, notably the works of Hardy, Gissing, Moore, Bennett and Wells. If we follow back this line of fiction which seems to have been strongly affected by the growing interest in science and a scientific philosophy, we trace it to the work of George Eliot in England and to the novels of such Frenchmen as Flaubert, the brothers Goncourt, and Zola. The English novelists of the late 19th century received scientific and evolutionary ideas from many avenues of thought. But a technician in any line is always susceptible to the example of a skilled workman who has preceded him. The later Victorian novelists in whom we mark a decided bent towards science must have been familiar with the work of George Eliot and were probably acquainted with the writings of Zola. The problem is, of course, connected with the development of realism, and a full study of it would include a discussion of the influence of the growing prestige of science on the technique of the novel. That subject, however, with all its charms, we put aside. What we shall try to discover is what influence science and a philosophy based on science has had on the conception of life which is found in the work of Zola and of George Eliot.

1.

One of the best French criticisms of George Eliot's work, Brunetière's essay "Le Naturalisme Anglais", remarks on the difficulty of

1. Le Roman naturaliste, 206.

explaining the indifference which existed in France towards George Eliot's novels, for she had, he says, "levé voilà tantôt vingt-cinq ans le drapeau du natural isme en Angleterre, elle eût pu fournir à nos réalistes jadis,

à nos naturalistes aujourd'hui, ce qui jusqu'à présent leur manque le plus pour achever la démonstration de leur doctrine: des oeuvres; et dans le nombre, sans discussion possible, trois ou quatre chefs-d'oeuvres". Brunetière makes clear before the end of his essay what he considers the essential differences between French and English naturalism, but the term "naturalism" has become so limited in meaning that unless the difference is emphasized over and over again the statement of Brunetière is misleading.

These

The debt of later writers to French naturalism and to the work of George Eliot was distinctly different - the difference may be brought out by a study of the kind of philosophy which an interest in science produced in both George Eliot and Zola. Such a study would be interesting in itself, but it is not, in this case, an end in itself. What we are after is a means of establishing criteria for the judgment of later works. criteria find no chance of application within the scope of this study, except that we try to show the exhibition in George Eliot's novels of the scientific philosophy whose sources and nature we discuss in Chapter II. That we include this chapter and not a corresponding one on the novels of Zola is accounted for by the fact that George Eliot's work belongs in spirit if not in date to the later Victorian group we shall later be concerned with. Having discussed in Chapter I the sources of Zola's scientific ideas, in Chapter II the scientific doctrines of George Eliot, and in Chapter III the exhibition of this philosophy in her novels, I shall attempt in the conclusion to distinguish between the types of scientific philosophy found in the works of the French "naturalist" and of George Eliot and to point out in sketchy fashion how these differing elements appear as influences in the case of two particular novels of the later Victorian period.

Chapter I.

Scientific Influences in the Work of Zola.

To the student of the novel Zola's work is unusually interesting because it presents both practice and precept, both art and philosophy. He was a successful novelist and a strong advocate of a particular theory of fiction, and both as novelist and as theorist he exhibits to an unusual degree the influence of the scientific tendencies of the time. In his novels this influence appears in a two-fold form. First, it crops out constantly in references to scientific problems, in the use of figures and comparisons taken from science and in the drawing of characters and incidents inspired by the author's scientific interests; and second, it shows here and there to a thoughtful reader in the impression he receives of a throng of beings swept along in a stream of circumstance stronger than they. Mention of the problems or the achievements of science is too much a common place to a reader of Zola to need illustration nor is it necessary to give space to any list of scientific figures or comparisons. Easily recollected examples of incidents inspired by Zola's scientific interest are the account of Coupeau's case of delirium tremens in L'Assommoir and the horrible description of the fatal smallpox case in Nana. In some cases Zola even puts into his books what amount almost to excerpts from medical treatises, as the description of tuberculous meningitis in Une page d'amour and the account of Louise's delivery in La Joie de vivre. Men of science appear often as characters in the Rougon-Macquart series, especially physicians, depicted carefully and almost satirically. The chief example of Zola's skill in sketching a doctor of medicine is Dr. Pascal in the novel of the same name. Pascal acts not only as hero of this particular tale, but as summarizer and elucidator of the whole series.