el, Norwood.

It would be superfluous for me to enter here into all the questions
which M. Zola raises in his pages. The evils from which France suffers
in relation to the stagnancy of its population, are well known, and that
their continuance--if continuance there be--will mean the downfall of
the country from its position as one of the world's great powers before
the close of the twentieth century, is a mathematical certainty. That
M. Zola, in order to combat those evils, and to do his duty as a good
citizen anxious to prevent the decline of his country, should have dealt
with his subject with the greatest frankness and outspokenness, was only
natural. Moreover, absolute freedom of speech exists in France, which is
not the case elsewhere. Thus, when I first perused the original proofs
of M. Zola's work, I came to the conclusion that any version of it in
the English language would be well-nigh impossible. For some time I
remained of that opinion, and I made a statement to that effect in
a leading literary journal. Subsequently, however, my views became
modified. "The man who is ridiculous," wrote a French poet, Barthelemy,
"is he whose opinions never change," and thus I at last reverted to a
task from which I had turned aside almost in despair.

Various considerations influenced me, and among them was the thought
that if "Fruitfulness" were not presented to the public in an English
dress, M. Zola's new series would remain incomplete, decapitated so
far as British and American readers were concerned. After all, the
criticisms dealing with the French original were solely directed against
matters of form, the mould in which some part of the work was cast. Its
high moral purpose was distinctly recognized by several even of its
most bitter detractors. For me the problem was how to retain the whole
ensemble of the narrative and the essence of the lessons which the work
inculcates, while recasting some portion of it and sacrificing those
matters of form to which exception was taken. It is not for me to say
whether I have succeeded in the task; but I think that nothing in any
degree offensive to delicate susceptibilities will be found in this
present version of M. Zola's book.

The English reviews of the French original showed that if certain
portions of it were deemed indiscreet, it none the less teemed with
admirable and even delightful pages. Among the English reviewers were
two well-known lady writers, Madame Darmesteter