His Excellency - Son Exc; Eugene Rougon #219717

Rougon has a band of his own — they all had bands in those days, like the Emperor himself; and since that time we have in a similar way seen Gambetta and his queue and Boulanger and his clique. And, curiously enough, as in Rougon's case, those historic coteries were in each instance the prime factors in their leader's overthrow. Thus we have only to turn to the recorded incidents of history to realise the full truth of M. Zola's account of the Rougon gang. It is a masterly account, instinct with accuracy, as real as life itself. And Rougon, on whatever patchwork basis he may have been built, is a living figure, one of a nature so direct, so free from intricacy, that few ignorant Of the truth would imagine him to be a patchwork creation at all. Surely, to have so fully assimilated in one personage the characteristics of half a-dozen known men in such wise that, without any clashing Of individual proclivities, the whole six are truthfully em bodied in one, is a signal proof of that form of genius which lies in the infinite capacity for taking pains.