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Zola Quotes

Browse 33 quotes about Zola.

Zola Quotes

“Thus, Symbolism and Decadence are not a separate new school which arose in France and spread throughout all of Europe: they represent the end and culmination of a certain other school whose links were very extensive and whose roots go back to the beginning of the modern age. Symbolism, easily deduced from Maupassant, can also be deduced from Zola, Flaubert, and Balzac, from Ultra-realism as the antithesis of the previous Ultra-idealism Romanticism and "renascent" Classicism. It is precisely this element of ultra - the result of ultra manifested in life itself, in its mores, ideas, proclivities, and aspirations - that has wormed into literature and remained there ever since, expressing itself, finally, in such a hideous phenomenon as Decadence and Symbolism. The ultra without its referent, exaggeration without the exaggerated object, preciosity of form conjoined with total disappearance of content, and "poetry" devoid of rhyme, meter, and sense - that is what constitutes Decadence.”

RealismSymbolismDecadenceBalzacZolaDecadentsSymbolistMaupassantFlaubert
Author:Vasily Rozanov
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“The sea with its perpetual oscillation, that obstinate swell sweeping up to the cliffs twice a day, exasperated him: it was senseless force, indifferent to his grief, wearing down the same rocks for centuries while never mourning the death of a single human being. it was too vast, too cold; and he would hurry home and shut himself indoors, to feel less insignificant, less crushed between the dual infinities of sea and sky.”

PessimismThe SeaZola
Book:The Bright Side of Life
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“Per un istante, temendo di svenire a quell'odore di donna che ritrovava più caldo, moltiplicato, sotto il soffitto basso, si sedette sul bordo del divano imbottito, tra le due finestre. Ma si rialzò immediatamente, tornò accanto alla toeletta, senza guardare più niente, gli occhi vacui, ripensando a un mazzo di tuberose che una volta era appassito nella sua stanza e l'aveva fatto quasi morire. Le tuberose, quando si decompongono, hanno un odore umano.”

ZolaNanà
Book:Nana
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“It is not the experience which leads him to the problem, but the problem which leads him to the experience. That is also Zola’s method and procedure. He begins a new novel as the German professor of the anecdote begins a new course of lectures, in order to obtain more exact information about a subject with which he is unfamiliar.”

Zola
Book:The Social History of Art: Volume 4: Naturalism, Impressionism, The Film Age
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“I spite of his scientific attitude he is a romantic, and indeed much more whole-heartedly so than the other less radical naturalists of his day. His one-sided, undialectical rationalization and schematization of reality is already boldly and ruthlesslyromantic. And the symbols to which he reduces motley, many-sided, contradictory life— the city, the machine, alcohol, prostitution, the department store, the markethall, the stock exchange, the theatre, etc.—are all the more the visions of a romantic systematizer, who sees allegories instead of concrete individual phenomena everywhere.”

PhenomenonRomanticismZola
Book:The Social History of Art: Volume 4: Naturalism, Impressionism, The Film Age
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“Pour moi, la rue de Bruxelles est demeurée tout entière dans le petit hôtel de Zola, où il recevait gentiment ses amis. Il était gourmand, il zézayait et, d'un air futé, disait de la bécasse flambée : «La fair (la chair) est quelconque, mais la faufe (la sauce) est bonne. » Sa maison était décorée de blocs de pierre sans intérêt, rapportés d'Italie, et qui excitaient l'hilarité de Goncourt, de quleques belles toiles de Manet, Cézanne et autres, et de meubles riches, qu'il croyait anciens, mais que le même Goncourt affirmait rafistolés. Son goût, sauf en peinture, était moyenâgeux et incompétent. Mon père disait : «Il aime les stalles et les cathèdres. »”

Zola
Book:Paris Vécu - 1ère série: Rive Droite
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“Whether it's Mrs Dalloway's lost love or Thérèse Raquin's burgeoning horror, The Paying Guests reminds us of every great novel we've gasped or winced at, or loudly urged the protagonists through, and it does not relent. . . . The Paying Guests is the apotheosis of [Waters'] talent; at least for now. I have tried and failed to find a single negative thing to say about it. Her next will probably be even better. Until then, read it, Flaubert, Zola, and weep.”

DoeNextLostWaterNovelTalentHorrorNegativeGuestsLost LoveProtagonistsGreat NovelsMrs DallowayZolaApotheosis
Author:Charlotte Mendelson
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“The Poor Man whom everyone speaks of, the Poor Man whom everyone pities, one of the repulsive Poor from whom charitable souls keep their distance, he has still said nothing. Or, rather, he has spoken through the voice of Victor Hugo, Zola, Richepin. At least, they said so. And these shameful impostures fed their authors. Cruel irony, the Poor Man tormented with hunger feeds those who plead his case.”

MenSaidStillsSoulSpeakVoicePoorPovertyCasesDistanceHungerPityIronyFedsThey SaidShamefulPoor ManCharitableZola
Author:Albert Camus
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“All the critics who could not make their reputations by discovering you are hoping to make them by predicting hopefully your approaching impotence, failure and general drying up of natural juices. Not a one will wish you luck or hope that you will keep on writing unless you have political affiliations in which case these will rally around and speak of you and Homer, Balzac, Zola and Link Steffens.”

WritingPoliticalSpeakWishNaturalCasesCriticismLuckCriticsReputationHopefullyLinksDiscoveringJuiceWish YouImpotencePredictingAffiliationBalzacZola
Author:Ernest Hemingway
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“Throughout my reading life, I've enjoyed many memorable meals-if only fictionally. The oysters at dinner near the beginning of Anna Karenina, the dinner Nana throws for her overflowing guests in Zola's Nana, the walk through Les Halles for breakfast in Baldwin's Giovanni's Room, and nearly every meal in Monique Truong's The Book of Salt.”

IfsBookReadingWalksRoomsDinnerEnjoyedMemorableMealsBreakfastGuestsSaltOystersAnnaZolaReading Life
Author:Alexander Chee
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