The idea of destiny or heredity permeates all the works of this portentously ambitious series. Details may be repellant. One should not “smell” a picture, as the artists say. If one does, he gets an impression merely of a small blotch of paint. The vast canvas should be studied as a whole. Frailties are certainly not the whole of human nature. But they cannot be excluded from a comprehensive view of it. The “_Rougon-Macquart_ series” did not carry Zola into the Academy. But the reputation of Moliere has managed to survive a similar exclusion, and so will the fame of Zola, who will be bracketed with Balzac in future classifications of artistic excellence. For twenty-two years, from _La Fortune des Rougon_, in 1871, to _Docteur Pascal_ in 1893, the series continued to focus the attention of the world, and Zola was the most talked about man in the literature of the epoch. _La Fortune des Rougon_ was introductory. _La Curée_ discussed society under the second Empire. _Le Ventre de Paris_ described the great market of Paris. _La Conquete de Plassans_ spoke of life in the south of France. _La Faute de l’Abbé Mouret_ treated of the results of celibacy. _Son Excellence Eugene Rougon_ dealt with official life. _L’Assommoir_ was a tract against the vice of drunkenness. Some think this the strongest of the naturalist series. Its success was prodigious. In this the marvellous talent of Zola for minute description is evinced. _Une Page d’Amour_ (A Love Episode) appeared in 1878. Of _Nana_, 1880, three hundred thousand copies were quickly sold. _Pot-Bouille_ portrayed the lower _bourgeoisie_ and their servants. _Au Bonheur des Dames_ treated of the great retail shops. _La Joie de Vivre_ came in 1884. _Germinal_ told of mining and the misery of the proletariat. _L’Oeuvre_ pictured the life of artists and authors. _La Terre_ portrayed, with startling realism, the lowest peasant life. _Le Reve_, which followed, was a reaction. It was a graceful idyl. _Le Reve_ was termed “a symphony in white,” and was considered as a concession to the views of the majority of the French Academy. _La Bete Humaine_ exhausted the details of railway life. _L’Argent_ treats of financial scandals and panics. _La Debacle_, 1892, is a realistic picture of the desperate struggles of the Franco-Prussian war. _Le Docteur Pascal_, 1893, a story of the emotions, wound up the series. Through it all runs the thread of heredity and environment in their influence on human character. But Zola’s work was not finished. A series of three romances on cities showed a continuance of power. They are _Lourdes_, _Rome_, and _Paris_. After the books on the three cities Zola planned a sort of tetralogy, intended to sum up his social philosophy, which he called the “Four Gospels.” _Feconditie_ is a tract against race suicide. The others of this series are entitled _Travail_, _Verite_ and _Justice_, the latter projected but not begun.