90. Two Essays

Dr. Benno Diederich, the author of the biography of Zola in the Leipzig Biographical People's Books, has now published two essays in the Virchow Collection, which previously contained nothing about the famous Frenchman. They formed a lecture that Diederich gave at the Hamburg Literary Society, and are being made available in this form to the widest possible audience, and will certainly find a grateful readership at a time when the name Zola is on everyone's lips. In the first part, they provide an overview of the great novelistic work of the Rougon-Macquarts, which vividly orientates Zola's readers about the context of the individual novels. In the second part, they describe a characteristic side of the poet's writing style, which, explained by a variety of examples, provides an interesting contribution to the understanding of his art. In line with the tendency of Virchow's collection, the author has avoided all abstract, literary theorizing; he does not assume any knowledge and introduces his readers to the great series of novels in a completely unbiased way; he also deals with the difficult the difficult subject of the theory of environment, he treats it in such a way that the reader, without being held up by academic undergrowth, can follow a clear path step by step and orient himself on the numerous examples. All in all, a booklet that many will read with interest.