Written only weeks after Zola’s death in 1902, this essay is Howells’s attempt to judge him as posterity would. He considers Zola as a poet of epic imagination and ethical force, examines the theory of naturalism and why Zola’s own work was more selective than he claimed, and honours his courage in the Dreyfus affair.
A short, generous tribute from one great realist to another. Download the free EPUB.