rast, of the same
school, but not of the same family. Zola is methodical, Daudet
spontaneous. Zola works with documents, Daudet from the living fact. Zola
is objective, Daudet with equal scope and fearlessness shows more
personal feeling and hence more delicacy. And in style also Zola is vast,
architectural; Daudet slight, rapid, subtle, lively, suggestive. And
finally, in their philosophy of life, Zola may inspire a hate of vice and
wrong, but Daudet wins a love for what is good and true.

Alphonse Daudet was born in Nimes, Provence, May 13, 1840. His father had
been a well-to-do silk manufacturer, but, while Alphonse was still a
child, lost his property. Poverty compelled the son to seek the wretched
post of usher (pion) in a school at Alais. In November, 1857, he settled
in Paris and joined his almost equally penniless brother Ernest. The
autobiography, 'Le Petit Chose' (1868), gives graphic details about this
period. His first years of literary life were those of an industrious
Bohemian, with poetry for consolation and newspaper work for bread. He
had secured a secretaryship with the Duc de Morny, President of the Corps
Legislatif, and had won recognition for his short stories in the
'Figaro', when failing health compelled him to go to Algiers. Returning,
he married toward that period a lady (Julia Allard, born 1847), whose
literary talent comprehended, supplemented, and aided his own. After the
death of the Duc de Morny (1865) he consecrated himself entirely to
literature and published 'Lettres de mon Moulin' (1868), which also made
his name favorably known. He now turned from fiction to the drama, and it
was not until after 1870 that he became fully conscious of his vocation
as a novelist, perhaps through the trials of the siege of Paris and the
humiliation of his country, which deepened his nature without souring it.
Daudet's genial satire, 'Tartarin de Tarascon', appeared in 1872; but
with the Parisian romance 'Fromont jeune et Risler aine', crowned by the
Academy (1874), he suddenly advanced into the foremost rank of French
novelists; it was his first great success, or, as he puts it, "the dawn
of his popularity."

How numberless editions of this book were printed, and rights of
translations sought from other countries, Daudet has told us with natural
pride. The book must be read to be appreciated. "Risler, a self-made,
honest man, raises himself socially into a society against the
corruptness of which he has