Notes and Comments.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 264, 2 October 1902, Page 3

Notes and Comments.

The death is reported in Paris of M. Zola, the novelist, of emile accident*! asphyxiation, ZOLA, caused by a defective stovepipe in his bedroom. Madame Zola was also affected, but she is recovering. M. Zola returned from the country on September 28, and as the house was cold a fire was lighted. The chimney smoked, and the servants lowered a metal sheet, leaving the blocks of fuel to smoulder, but they opened the windows, closing them again at night. There were indications that the blocks had burned slowly, and that the exhaled gas which had accumulated owins; to the defective chimney had penetrated the bedroom. The servants knocked on the bedroom door, and as there was no response they entered. They found M. Zola lying on the floor quite dead and Madame Zola in bed, but unconscious. When animation had been restored she stated that she had a headache, and asked her husband to open the window. He fell and she fainted. Experts say that the fumes were strongest near the floor. Eraile Zola was born in 1810, in Paris. Educated at the Lycee Saint-Louis, he began life at Hachette and Co.'s, the French publishing firm. He first appeared as a novelist in " Les Mysteres cle Marseilles." "Therese Raquin" further exhibited his remarkable power of critical analysis of human nature. "L'Assommoir," perhaps his most popular work, has gone through fifty editions. He was the author of " Nana," " Pot Bouiile," "La Terre," "La Bete Humaine," and other works. M. Zola was elected president of the Society of Men of Letters in April 1891. In 1892 he published "La Debacle," and " Docteur Paical" in June, 1893. This book was the final volume of the famous Rougon Macquart series of twenty volumes, and was dedicated to the memory of M. Zola's mother and to his wife. During 1894 he published " Lourdes," a love story, set in the scenery of the famous resort of French Pilgrims. " Rome" followed in 1896 and " Paris " in 1897. During 1897 and 1898 he took up the cause of Captain Dreyfus, and was in consequence of his action prosecuted by order of the French Government, and, after two trials, condemned to imprisonment for one year and a fine of 3000 fr. To secure a retrial of the case later on, and to avoid injury to the cause of revision, he left the country secretly, and stayed quietly for some time in England. The events in connection with the Dreyfus case during 1899 fully justified his action. A work written by him during his voluntary exile, "Fecondits," was published in October, 189 Q.