Note 441 — Chapter I

I would lay humanity on a white page, all things, all beings, a work which would be a vast ark.’—E. Zola, preface to La Faute de l’Abbé Mouret, edition of 1875. ‘Throw yourself into the commonplace current of existence.’ ‘Choose for your hero a person in the simplicity of daily life.’ ‘No hollow apotheoses, no grand false sentiments, no ready-made formulæ.’—E. Zola, Le Roman expérimental, passim.