Autobiographical Elements in Zola's La Joie De Vivre

Trop personnel! Bon Dieu! On ne saurait être trop personnel … Ce que nous cherchons dans une œuvre, c'est un homme.“ So, in 1864, did young Émile Zola first justify the intensely personal note that he was later to strike so often in his novels. Many of his characters—Sandoz, Claude, Pascal Rougon, Mathieu Froment—testify that the doctrine of impersonality in art was not for him, that he did not hesitate to call upon his own memories in the composition of his figures. In the present study I shall attempt to show that Lazare Chanteau of La Joie de vivre also may claim a place in this gallery of self-portraits, that Zola consciously formed him in his own image and likeness.