TRUTH
[VÉRITÉ]
By
ÉMILE ZOLA
Translated by
ERNEST A. VIZETELLY
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE
THE BODLEY HEAD
1903
CONTENTS
PREFACE
TRUTH
BOOK I
I
II
III
IV
BOOK II
I
II
III
IV
BOOK III
I
II
III
IV
BOOK IV
I
II
III
IV
PREFACE
Conspicuous among the writings which influenced the great changeswitnessed by the world at the end of the eighteenth century were the'Nouvelle Héloise,' the 'Contrat Social,' the 'Émile ou l'Éducation' ofJean-Jacques Rousseau. At the close of the nineteenth, the advent ofthe twentieth century, one finds three books, 'Fécondité,' 'Travail,'and 'Vérité,' the works of Émile Zola, Rousseau's foremost descendant.It is too soon by far to attempt to gauge the extent of the influencewhich these works may exercise; but, disseminated in French and in manyother languages to the uttermost ends of the earth, they are workswhich will certainly have to be reckoned with in a social as well as aliterary sense. The writings of Rousseau, violently assailed by some,enthusiastically praised by others, ended by leaving their mark onthe world at large. Very few may read them nowadays, but in certainessential respects their spirit pervaded the nineteenth century, andtheir influence is not dead yet, for the influence which springs fromthe eternal truths of nature cannot die. As for the critics who willundoubtedly arise to dispute the likelihood of any great influencebeing exercised by the last writings of Émile Zola, I adjourn themto some twenty years hence. Rome was not built in a day, many longyears elapsed before the spirit of Rousseau's writings became fullydisseminated, and, although the world moves more quickly now than itdid then, time remains a factor of the greatest importance.
Moreover, the future alone can decide the fate of Émile Zola's lastbooks; for, while dealing with problems of the[Pg iv] present time, they areessentially books which appeal to the future for their justification.Each of those three volumes, 'Fécondité,' 'Travail,' and 'Vérité,'takes as its text an existing state of things, and then suggestsalterations and remedies which can only be applied gradually, longyears being required to bring about any substantial result. It is knownthat the series was to