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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
For those interested in exploring the mysteries of artistic creation, the long section of Zola's manuscript notes for Germinal entitled the Ebauche can be an illuminating, yet, at the same time, tantalizing document. As we turn its pages, written in Zola's firm hand, it is tempting to succumb to the illusion that we are following the genesis of this great novel much as it actually took shape in Zola's mind. And, as we shall see, no other part of the notes can, in fact, tell so much about his method of composition, his objectives, his way of reasoning with himself on paper. Yet in the final analysis we shall also see that the Ebauche, instructive as it may be in these respects, reveals only a fraction of his thoughts during the period of creation. We shall be struck by the contrast between what the Ebauche shows about the novelist's methodical planning and what it fails to show of his creative genius.
1 Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris), MS., Fonds français, Nouvelles acquisitions, 10307, foll. 401–499, originally numbered, by Zola, from 1 to 96. In the following text we refer to the original pagination, as does Philippe Van Tieghem in his reproduction of the Ebauche and brief commentary, Introduction à l'étude d'Emile Zola: “Germinal” (Documents inédits de la Bibliothèque Nationale) (Paris, 1954), pp. 79–107. The Ebauche has also been reproduced by Elliott M. Grant, Zola's “Germinal”: A Critical and Historical Study (Leicester, 1962), pp. 171–206, and commented upon, pp. 16–24. Besides the Ebauche, the major sections of the manuscript notes for Germinal (2 vols.) are MS. 10307, the Plan par parties (foll. 1–7), plan par chapitres (foll. 8–400), MS. 10308, Personnages (foll. 1–95), Les Grèves (foll. 151–206), Mes notes sur Amin (foll. 208–303).
2 For example, Henri Massis, Comment Emile Zola composait ses romans (Paris, 1906), p. 85, asserts that in his ébauches “il écrit ses soliloques, parole par parole, tels qu'ils lui viennent. Il met là tout ce qui lui passe par la tête …”
3 See Martin Kanes, “Germinal: Drama and Dramatic Structure,” MP, lxi (1963), 12–25. Kanes suggests that Zola, having planned a play before the novel, wrote an ébauche with theatrical purposes in mind.
4 Zola's early notes for the Rougon-Macquart series, Bibl. Nat., MS., Fonds français, Nouv. acq., 10303 and 10345, are partially reproduced by H. Massis, pp. 15–74, and Maurice Le Blond in the Bernouard edition of La Fortune des Rougon (Paris, 1927), pp. 353–363. For a recent analysis, see René Ternois, “Les Rougon-Macquart: naissance d'une œuvre,” L'Education Nationale (16 Oct. 1952).
5 Les Romanciers naturalistes (Bernouard), pp. 275–279. See especially the passage beginning p. 277: “Cela est triste à confesser … mais nos succès, à nous tous, sont un peu faits du lyrisme qui s'infiltre quand même dans nos œuvres. … Hélas! j'en ai peur, ce n'est pas encore la vérité qu'on aime en nous, se sont les épices de langue, les fantaisies de dessin et de couleur dont nous l'accompagnons.”
6 La Fortune des Rougon (Bernouard), p. 355.
7 Correspondance (Bernouard), ii, 636–637.
8 See, for example, J. H. Matthews, Les Deux Zola: Science et personnalité dans l'expression (Geneva, 1957), pp. 86, 91–93, et passim; Gaëtan Picon, “Le ‘Réalisme’ d'Emile Zola: du ‘tel quel’ à l‘œuvre-objet,” Les Cahiers Naturalistes, no. 22 (1962), 235–240; C. A. Burns, “Documentation et imagination chez Emile Zola,” Les Cahiers Naturalistes, nos. 24–25 (1963), 69–78. The common tendency of earlier criticism to set up a distinction between two sharply opposed Zolas greatly oversimplifies the true nature of his creative thought; e.g., Massis’ affirmation, pp. 97–98, “qu'il y a en Zola ‘deux bonshommes distincts,’ comme disait Flaubert, l'un épris de mélodrame … l'autre qui s'efforce au contraire d’être réaliste, et s'acharne de tout son courage à combattre le premier … et c'est précisément à cette lutte perpétuelle, à ce désaccord entre ces deux hommes différents que nous assistons en lisant l'Ebauche [of L'Assommoir].”
9 See also Zola's letter to Ernst Ziégler, 16 April 1884, Correspondance, ii, 614.
10 Max Weber on the Methodology of the Social Sciences, tr. and ed. by E. A. Shils and H. A. Finch (Glencoe, Ill., 1949), pp. 74–75.
11 Cf. Robert Redfield, The Little Community: Viewpoints for the Study of a Human Whole (Chicago, 1955), p. 152: “There is always some prearrangement of the facts before the actual investigation.” Nevertheless, Zola has been criticized as unscientific in this respect by a number of critics, e.g., Jacqueline Chambron, “Réalisme et épopée chez Zola,” La Pensée (Sept.-Oct. 1952), p. 127. See also, however, Ida Marie Frandon, Autour de “Germinal”: La Mine et les mineurs (Geneva, 1955), pp. 110–111.
12 Preface, Cabinet des Antiques, in L'Œuvre, ed. Albert Béguin (Paris, 1953 et seq.), p. 299.
13 “L'Enfant, martyr de la mine,” Mercure de France, no. 1168 (1960), 654–666. Or see her Anatomie d'un chef d'œuvre: “Germinal” (Paris, 1964), pp. 115–130.
14 La Fortune des Rougon (Bernouard), p. 359. His fear that the public would be repelled by the scientific character of his works unless he included a good story is expressed in the same passage, which reassures his publisher (Lacroix): “Il ne faudrait pas croire, d'après ce plan, que l‘œuvre sera dure et rigide comme un traité de physiologie ou d‘économie sociale. Je la vois vivante et très vivante. Tout ce que je viens de dire s'applique à la carcasse intime de l'ouvrage. Chaque volume contiendra une action dramatique …”
15 Yet, as Guy Robert, Emile Zola: Principes et caractéres généraux de son œuvre (Paris, 1952), p. 54, points out, Zola does not hesitate to use the word poème to describe his intentions in the ébauches of Le Ventre de Paris, Nana, Au Bonheur des Dames, and La Terre.
16 A more complete list would also include: arranger, arrêter, attitude, cadre, caractère, centre, chapitre, commencement, conversation, début, décor, déduire, dénouement, dérouler, description, distribuer, drame personnel, épisode, établir, étudier, expliquer, exposition, faire agir, faire pendant à, faire prévoir, faire tomber toute la clarté sur, figure d'arrière plan sans commencement ni fin, figure de deuxième plan, fin, finir sur, fond, grande étude centrale, grande marche, imaginer, indiquer, intérieur, intrigue, inventer, laisser dans le fond, laisser dans le vague, lutte, mêler, mettre au premier plan, mettre en scène, mettre la première menace, milieu, montrer, montrer la figure qui conduira, nommer, nommer d'une façon abstraite, nuance, opposer, partie, partie supérieure, passif, plan, plan très en arrière, point important, poser discrètement, pousser au summum de l'intensité possible, préparer, raconter, raisonnable, rappel, régler, réplique, reporter le drame chez, reprendre, représenter, rester dans la coulisse, roman, romance, sans tralala, scène, simple décor, situation, supprimer, tableau, tempérament, terminer, traverser, trouver, type, vrai.
17 Zola himself suggests the comparison in a youthful letter to Cézanne, 14 June 1858 (Correspondance, i, 7): “… je suis comme M. Hugo; j'aime les contrastes.”
18 Cf. his early Rougon-Macquart notes, La Fortune des Rougon, p. 355.
19 Zola is often deliberately inconsistent in his manner of portraying character; e.g., in La Faute de l'abbé Mouret, he distinguishes between characters whom, if necessary, he could have transplanted from the street into the novel without altering any of their principal traits, and those created to translate an idea or represent a preconceived type (MS. 10294, foll. 9–10); in L'Assommoir, between the majority, created to represent a documentary cross section of worker types and Gervaise, Coupeau, and Nana. “Ici, je suis en plein dans mon drame, et je réclame toutes les libertés qu'on accorde aux dramaturges” (Correspondance, ii, 469). There is no evidence that he ever considered dividing his characters in Germinal this way, but he does indicate that the difference between his main protagonists and secondary characters is largely to be found in their relative complexity (Correspondance, ii, 636).
20 Correspondance, i, 53. Note that he opposes strong design to realism.
21 For his distinction between romancier naturaliste and conteur, see Le Roman expérimental (Bernouard), pp. 181, 212, 223, et passim.
22 In the Ebauche of Le Ventre de Paris, he declares that “l'idée générale est le Ventre; le ventre de Paris, les Halles ou la nourriture afflue, s'entasse pour rayonner sur les quartiers divers … le ventre de l'humanité et, par extension, la bourgeoisie digérant, ruminant, cuvant en paix ses joies et ses honnêtetés moyennes; enfin le ventre dans l'empire …” (MS. Bibl. Nat. 10338, fol. 47), La Conquête de Plassans is to be “La province satisfaite et jouissant après le coup d‘état” (MS. Bibl. Nat. 10280, fol. 1), La Faute de l'abbé Mouret, “Eve et Adam s‘éveillant au printemps dans le paradis terrestre” (MS. Bibl. Nat. 10294, fol. 3), Son Excellence Eugène Rougon, “l'ambition d'un homme qui idolâtre sa force et son intelligence” (MS. Bibl. Nat. 10292, fol. 1), La Terre, “le poème vivant de la terre” (MS. Bibl. Nat. 10328, fol. 400).
23 It would, consequently, be somewhat difficult to prove with regard to Germinal what Fernand Doucet concludes about Zola's works in general, that each is “le développement d'une idée de poète qui s'adresse à l'allégorie pour la matérialiser”—L'Esthétique de Zola et son application à la critique (Paris, 1923), p. 175.
24 For a discussion of Souvarine as a realistic literary type, see E. Tersen, “Sources et sens de Germinal” La Pensée (Jan.-Feb. 1961), p. 82.
25 Dr. Edouard Toulouse, Enquête médico-psychologique sur les rapports de la supériorité intellectuelle avec la névropathie. 1, Introduction générale: Emile Zola (Paris, 1896), pp. 174, 204, 205, 207, 243, 250, 252, 275, 278, 279.
26 Alexis, Emile Zola: Notes d'un ami, p. 54.
27 Evidence of a particular fascination with, for example, the infernal qualities of mines may be found in the list of proposed titles for the novel (MS. 10308, fol. 425), the Ebauche (foll. 19, 42, 49), the chapter plans (e.g., MS. 10307, fol. 233), and correspondence, as well as the novel itself. See his letter to a newspaper editor (Correspondance, ii, 651): “C'est dans l'enfer du travail que je suis descendu …” Note also the title of a novel that almost certainly influenced him, Yves Guyot's Scènes de l'enfer social—La famille Pichot (1882). The theme of lovers in hell inspires the first canto of his youthful epic L'Amoureuse comédie. In a letter to Cézanne, 16 Jan. 1860 (Correspondance, i, 29), he says that he is reading Dante and indicates that he is especially moved by the episode of Paolo and Francesca: “Je lis Dante et voici la phrase que j'ai trouvée dans le chant v de l'Enfer: ‘L'amour qui ne fait grâce d'aimer à nul être aimé‘ etc … Et je me suis dit que Dieu veuille que le grand poète ait raison.” The importance he gives to the analogy between social warfare and a storm may also be inferred from, among other things, the list of proposed titles (e.g. “L'Orage qui monte”).
28 Correspondance, i, 137. The words avenir and souffle occur in another title considered by Zola for Germinal: “L'Avenir qui souffle” (MS. 10308, fol. 425).
29 La Terre“ d'Emile Zola: Etude historique et critique (Paris, 1952), p. 383. See also Mircea Eliade, The Myth of Eternal Return (New York, 1954).
30 “Situation d'Emile Zola,” Revue des Sciences Humaines (April-June 1952), and “L'Univers de Germinal,” in the same journal (Jan.-March 1953).
31 Les Contemporains, lere série, p. 281.
32 The Voreux mine, for example, is transformed through a wealth of metaphor into a wondrous beast with whom the miners battle, notably Souvarine, who with heroic courage sabotages the mine by weakening the tubbing, which is metaphorically compared to a monster's throat (Part vii). The miners' strike is consistently presented in terms of a vast storm culminating in the inundation of the Voreux in scenes intended to suggest analogies with great legendary floods. Not only is nature personified, but also, for example, the clouds that flee in horror at the sight of Jeanlin's killing the little soldier Jules and the mine superstructures which go down like giants. In the scene recounting the meeting in the woods the full moon is represented as exerting an irresistible influence upon the sea of miners. One could multiply such analogies. The full list has yet to be drawn up. Zola was himself fully aware, of course, of the close historical relationships between the novel and the epic and stressed them in a paper composed for the Congrès Scientifique de France in Aix-en-Provence, 1866, reproduced in Le Blond's notes in the Bernouard ed. of Le Roman expérimental, pp. 334 ff., under the title “Le Roman dans l'antiquité et dans les premiers temps du christianisme.” Among the many critics impressed by the epical qualities of Germinal, mention must be made of Lemaître, loc. cit., P. Moreau, “Germinal” d'Emile Zola, épopée et roman (Paris, 1954, a mimeographed “cours de Sorbonne”), and Harry Levin, The Gates of Horn (New York, 1963).
33 This would be true even if it had not been written in several sittings. Robert and Grant—see Grant, p. 143—suggest where the breaks might occur. There is no evidence in the Ebauche itself, however, that any of its original pages are missing. There is, on the other hand, internal evidence that Zola has thought about certain elements in his dramatic subject matter independently of the order in which he incorporates them into the Ebauche or “deduces” them from his central themes; e.g., his statement that he intends to make Catherine into a frail type, “au lieu de la forte fille que je voyais” (fol. 23). It is also noteworthy that he does not mention any of the three novels which may have influenced him, Hector Malot's Sans famille (1878), Maurice Talmeyr's Le Grisou (1880), and especially Guyot's Scènes de l'enfer social (see above). The extent of his debt to these authors is a matter for scholarly debate. Yet the fact that he does not refer to them in the Notes de travail in itself proves nothing, since there is no reason why he should.
34 See, for example, at the end of his first detailed plans for the final chapter (MS. 10307, fol. 396), his list of topics to be treated, in which he not only refers himself to specific passages in the Ebauche but also repeats phrases from it verbatim: “Le Dieu capital inconnu, accroupi. La sensation farouche de la défaite chez les ouvriers, la secousse donnée à la société qui a craqué, et faire prévoir d'autres secousses, jusqu'à l'effondrement final. Reprendre l'idée d'une révolution sociale, fatale. (Trois, partie, chap, i.) Le dieu capital (ébauche 22) La rentrée au puits. Les ouvriers Toi aussi Toi aussi (Eb 30) très important.”
35 Honoré de Balzac (Paris, 1859), p. 72.
36 For an analysis of Zola's major personal “myths” see Robert, Emile Zola, pp. 95—112. Cf. Eliade's discussion of some “myths of the modern world” in Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries (New York, 1960). In Myth and Reality (New York, 1963), p. 191, Eliade, remarking that one can show the literary survival in modern fiction of mythological themes, observes that this is true “especially in regard to the initiatory theme, the theme of the ordeals of the Hero-Redeemer and his battles with monsters, the mythologies of Women and of Wealth,” and concludes that “the modern passion for the novel expresses the desire to hear the greatest possible number of ‘mythological stories’ desacralized or simply camouflaged under ‘profane’ forms.” See also The Gates of Horn, p. 469, and, for parallels with Hebraic, Greco-Roman, and Celtic myths of death and resurrection, world destruction and renewal, P. Walker, “Prophetic Myths in Zola,” PMLA, lxxiv (Sept. 1959), 444–452. A further remarkable parallel is suggested by Eliade, Myth and Reality, p. 81: “A large number of myths feature (1) a hero being swallowed by a sea monster and emerging victorious after breaking through the monster's belly; (2) initiatory passage through a vagina dentata, or the dangerous descent into a cave or crevice assimilated to the mouth or the uterus of Mother Earth. All these adventures are in fact initiatory ordeals, after accomplishing which the victorious hero acquires a new mode of being.” The analogy with the successful passage of Zola's hero through the belly of the elaborately metaphorical Voreux monster submerged under the subterranean sea, “cette mer souterraine, la terreur des houillères du Nord, une mer avec ses tempêtes et ses naufrages, une mer ignorée, insondable, roulant ses flots noirs” (vii.ii), confirms our suspicion that Zola possesses not only an epical, but also a mythopoeic, genius of extraordinary power.