For a Night of Love

Émile Zola

Jan 2008 · Mondial

About this ebook

"For a Night of Love" ("Pour une nuit d'amour"; published in 1883); one of the most controversial novellas of its time: "The narrative begins with a carefully accentuated picture of a serene life: that of a timid lad sequestered in a country town; this serenity is but the prelude to events of the most appalling tragedy-a tragedy which does not merely strike or wound, but positively annihilates... It is not needful to do more than say that it is one of the most repulsive productions ever published by its author, and a vivid exception to the general innocuous character of his short stories." (Edmund Gosse, 1892) --- "...the poetic suggestion lurking in the tale 'Pour une nuit d'amour, ' which Poe might almost have written, can only be traced with difficulty, for it is wrapped in a ghastly realism." (Ernest Alfred Vizetelly, 1904) --- "It is interesting to notice from a note presumably furnished by Zola himself that the source of the plot of the psychopathic novel 'For A Night of Love' is in Casanova." (Alison M. Lederer, 1911)

About the author

Zola was the spokesperson for the naturalist novel in France and the leader of a school that championed the infusion of literature with new scientific theories of human development drawn from Charles Darwin (see Vol. 5) and various social philosophers. The theoretical claims for such an approach, which are considered simplistic today, were outlined by Zola in his Le Roman Experimental (The Experimental Novel, 1880). He was the author of the series of 20 novels called The Rougon-Macquart, in which he attempted to trace scientifically the effects of heredity through five generations of the Rougon and Macquart families. Three of the outstanding volumes are L'Assommoir (1877), a study of alcoholism and the working class; Nana (1880), a story of a prostitute who is a femme fatale; and Germinal (1885), a study of a strike at a coal mine. All gave scope to Zola's gift for portraying crowds in turmoil. Today Zola's novels have been appreciated by critics for their epic scope and their visionary and mythical qualities. He continues to be immensely popular with French readers. His newspaper article "J'Accuse," written in defense of Alfred Dreyfus, launched Zola into the public limelight and made him the political conscience of his country.