his own words.

"My father's mother was a Corfiote, he himself a Venetian, and my mother
was a Parisian. My father and mother met in Paris, during one of my
father's numerous visits here in connection with an aqueduct which he
wanted to construct at Aix in Provence. Within a very short time of
their first meeting, they were married. It was a love match. I was born
in Paris, in 1840, and to-day I am, therefore, 53.

[Illustration: (Facsimile of M. Zola's handwriting.)]

"In 1847 my father died, and left very little behind him, except
lawsuits, which, through inexperience more than anything else, my mother
and grandmother managed to lose.

"My education only then began, but until 12, when I had finally to enter
college, I had it pretty much my own way. That means I worked very
little, and spent most of my time in the open air, running about in our
glorious southern fields, and learning how to love and admire nature.

"At college I studied with varying success.

"What I liked best were mathematics and science. I hated Greek and
Latin.

[Illustration: THE STAIRCASE.]

"It was during the last year of my college life that I made the
acquaintance of two young fellows who may have been instrumental in
making of me what I am now. As we had pretty much the same tastes it was
our passion, whenever we could indulge in it, to run out in the fields,
get on the banks of a stream, and for hours, under the shade of some
tree, read the books of fiction which came to our possession. After each
book had been gone through, we discussed its merits, chapter by chapter,
studied the characters and the plot; all this more from a metaphysical
than a literary point of view.

"I left college in 1848, and came to Paris to get work, in order to help
my mother. I found a situation which I soon had to give up, and, till
1861, I went through all the hardships that a destitute young man can
undergo in Paris.

"Often have I spent in my attic the best part of the day, lying in bed
to keep warm.

"Although, as you see, I am better off now, I often look back upon that
time regretting that it cannot return.

"_Voyez vous_, privations and suffering were my lot, but I had in me the
fire of youth. I had health, hope, unbounded confidence in myself, and
ambition.

"_Ah oui!_ It was a glorious time. I remember how I used to write for
hours and hours in my bed; how everything was then fresh to me, how my
inexperience made me look hopefully forward.