Note 448 — Chapter I
Reading edition
His descriptions of impulsive criminals are not really exact. The laity have greatly admired his description of the assassin Lantier in La Bête humaine. The most competent judge in such matters, however, Lombroso, says of this character, which has been inspired in M. Zola, according to his own declaration, by L’Uomo delinquente: ‘M. Zola, in my opinion, has never observed criminals in real life.... His criminal characters give me the impression of the wanness and inaccuracy of certain photographs which reproduce portraits, not from Nature, but from pictures.’—Le piu recenti scoperte ed applicazioni della psichiatria ed antropologia criminale. Con 3 tavole e 52 figure nel testo. Torino, 1893, p. 356.