"This fact, to a French story-teller, appears, of course, a damnable restriction, and M. Zola would probably decline to take _au sérieux_ any work produced under such unnatural conditions. Half of life is a sealed book to young unmarried ladies, and how can a novel be worth anything that deals only with half of life? These objections are perfectly valid, and it may be said that our English system is a good thing for virgins and boys, and a bad thing for the novel itself, when the novel is regarded as something more than a simple _jeu d'esprit_, and considered as a composition that treats of life at large and helps us to _know_." THE "ASSOMMOIR;" (The Prelude to "NANA.") TRANSLATED WITHOUT ABRIDGMENT FROM THE 97TH FRENCH EDITION. _Illustrated with Sixteen Tinted Page Engravings, by French Artists._ "After reading Zola's novels it seems as if in all others, even in the truest, there were a veil between the reader and the things described, and there is present to our minds the same difference as exists between the representations of human faces on canvas and the reflection of the same faces in a mirror. It is like finding truth for the first time. "Zola is one of the most moral novelists in France, and it is really astonishing how anyone can doubt this. He makes us note the smell of vice, not its perfume: his nude figures are those of the anatomical table, which do not inspire the slightest immoral thought; there is not one of his books, not even the crudest, that does not leave behind it pure, firm, and unmistakable aversion, or scorn, for the base passions of which he treats."--_Signor de Amicis._ =The above Works are published without the Illustrations, price 5s. each.= _In Preparation. Uniform with the above Volumes._ GERMINAL; OR, MASTER AND MAN. THE RUSH FOR THE SPOIL. THE LADIES' PARADISE. THÉRÈSE RAQUIN. _In large 8vo, handsomely bound and gilt, price 7s. 6d._ A NEW ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF M. EMILE ZOLA'S REALISTIC NOVEL, NANA. _Illustrated with upwards of 100 Engravings, nearly half of which are full-page._ TO BE FOLLOWED BY ILLUSTRATED EDITIONS OF THE "ASSOMMOIR," PIPING HOT! AND THE REST OF M. ZOLA'S MORE POPULAR WORKS. _In Crown 8vo, handsomely bound and gilt, price 6s., the Third and Completely Revised Edition of_ THE STORY OF THE DIAMOND NECKLACE, COMPRISING A SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF THE COUNTESS DE LA MOTTE, PRETENDED CONFIDANTE OF MARIE-ANTOINETTE, WITH PARTICULARS OF THE CAREERS OF THE OTHER ACTORS IN THIS REMARKABLE DRAMA. BY HENRY VIZETELLY. AUTHOR OF "BERLIN UNDER THE NEW EMPIRE," "PARIS IN PERIL," &C. _Illustrated with an Exact Representation of the Diamond Necklace, from a contemporary Drawing, and a Portrait of the Countess de la Motte, engraved on Steel._