Note 9 — ERNEST ALFRED VIZETELLY (continued 7)

In writing "L'Assommoir" Zola did not merely consult the existing slang dictionaries. The scene of the story was laid at half an hour's walk from his own home. He prowled the whole neighbourhood for weeks, observing and listening; and before he set pen to paper he prepared a little slang lexicon for his own use, one which may some day be published. He kept this compilation at his elbow while he was writing, and every time he borrowed from it a word or expression he marked the latter with a blue pencil, in order to avoid too frequent a repetition of the same term.