Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern . study of the passions,the conflicts of reason with instinct,— allthe old-time psychology, in short, — wasreplaced by the organic dissection of the characters, atavism, the influence of environment and circumstances,—•all determinism, in a word. In this examination of facts, hearts wereneglected; and novels laboriously constructed according to the posi-tivist method set forth by Zola in ^ Le Roman ExperimentaP — novelsin which all must be explained and demonstrated, which attemptedto reproduce the very movement of life — were sometime
Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern . study of the passions,the conflicts of reason with instinct,— allthe old-time psychology, in short, — wasreplaced by the organic dissection of the characters, atavism, the influence of environment and circumstances,—•all determinism, in a word. In this examination of facts, hearts wereneglected; and novels laboriously constructed according to the posi-tivist method set forth by Zola in ^ Le Roman ExperimentaP — novelsin which all must be explained and demonstrated, which attemptedto reproduce the very movement of life — were sometimes as false anddevoid of life as photographs, which exactly reproduce the details ofa face without catching its expression. By temperament, by education, Guy de Maupassant was above alla realist. He had learned from Flaubert that anything is worthy ofart when the artist knows how to fashion it. A country pharmacist,pretentious and commonplace (Bournisien in ^ Madame Bovary ^), isno less interesting than a scholar, a poet, or a prince. The writer. Guy de Maupassant 9804 GUY DE MAUPASSANT should not accord any preference to one or another of his impartiality guarantees the sureness of his observation. His roleis to express life simply and purely, without seeking its meaning,without choosing this or that form to the exclusion of some if the vulgarity or even coarseness of the characters and environ-ment, the crudeness of scene and language, aroused the curiosity ofthe public, and assisted the authors success by winning admirationsnot always addressed perhaps to what was truly admirable, — thelearned, the connoisseurs, were not deceived. They gr-eeted him asa master writer, an unequaled story-teller, who in spite of Zola pre-served the classic virtues — precision, clearness, art of composition —which are necessary to the novel, indispensable to the short alone was enough to distinguish Maupassant from the Zolaistsand the De Goncourti
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectliterat, bookyear1902
