[24] It is probable that Flaubert had questioned the novelty of "Naturalism." VII THE ADVANCE OF NATURALISM 1877-1881 "Une Page d'Amour"--The portrayal of Love--Zola buys a house at Médan--His play, "Le Bouton de Rose"--He is accused of stealing the plot of "Une Page d'Amour"--He attacks contemporary French novelists--Opinions of Feuillet and Dumas _fils_ on Zola--"The Republic and Literature"--Zola and the Legion of Honour--Flaubert and "Bouvard"--A Cabinet Council negatives the decoration of Zola--"L'Assommoir" as a play--Zola and Mr. George Moore--The effect of affluence on Zola--The transformation of Médan--Zola's studies--Humanitarianism enters into his literary conceptions--Scientific fiction and its aim--Preparations for "Nana"--La Païva--The courtesans of the Second Empire--"Nana" is published in "Le Voltaire"--The facial mask of small-pox--"Nana" as a book--Idealism and Naturalism: attractive and repulsive vice--"Les Soirées de Médan"--Maupassant's "Boule de Suif"--Hereditary insanity and strong passions--Death of Gustave Flaubert--Zola's essay on Flaubert--Death of Zola's mother--His campaign in "Le Figaro"--His attack on Hugo's "L'Ane"--He assails Gambetta--His article on "Drunken Slaves" and defence of "L'Assommoir"--"Nana" as a play--Léontine Massin plays Nana in real life as well as on the stage--Zola's "Romanciers Naturalistes," "Documents Littéraires," "Naturalisme au Théâtre" and "Auteurs Dramatiques"--His life of unflagging industry. At an early period of the controversies provoked by _"L'Assommoir,"_ that is when its publication had been transferred to "Le Bien Public," Zola quitted Paris for L'Estaque, a tiny village nestling below precipitous mountains on the shore of the Golfe des Crottes, beyond which spreads the Mediterranean, with the various islands, including the Château d'If of "Monte Cristo," which mark the approach to the port of Marseilles. In this quiet retreat, where life among the tunny-fishers was rather primitive, the novelist began to write "Une Page d'Amour," which he had planned before leaving Paris. Edmond de Goncourt mentions an amusing discussion started by Zola, apropos of this book, at a dinner given to Tourgeneff, who was leaving for Russia. Love, in Zola's opinion, did not master one so absolutely as some pretended; and, said he, phenomena similar to those which might be observed in love were also to be found in friendship and patriotism. For his part, he had never been madly in love, and therefore found it difficult to depict such a state of things in others. Flaubert and Goncourt admitted a similar incapacity, arising from the same cause, and it was agreed that the only one of the party whom experience might have qualified to portray the great passion adequately, was Tourgeneff, who, however, was unfortunately deficient in the necessary critical sense.