[17] In "Le Forgeron" one will find the first idea of Goujet of "L'Assommoir"; while "Mon voisin Jacques" is the original of Bazouge, the mute.
[18] Alexis, l. c., p. 109.
[19] A little later it was issued in book form: "Son Excellence Eugène Rougon," Paris, Charpentier, 1876, 18mo, 466 pages. The demand was smaller than that for the previous volume, "La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret"; and in 1903 only the thirty-sixth thousand was on sale.
[20] From £1,000 to £1,200, or from about $5,000 to $6,000.
[21] "L'Assommoir," Paris, Charpentier, 1877, 18mo, 573 pages; one hundred and twenty-seventh thousand on sale in 1893 when the Rougon-Macquart series was completed; one hundred and fifty-first thousand reached in 1903. Illustrated edition: Paris, Marpon and Flammarion, 1878, large 8vo, title, 466 pages, with 62 wood engravings after Gill, Clairin, Leloir, etc. Issued originally in parts (see above), the volume was priced at 6 francs. It has been frequently reprinted.
[22] To the information given above it may be added that Alexis's first noteworthy work was a play, "Celle qu'on n'épouse pas" (Gymnase, 1879) followed by "La Fin de Lucie Pellegrin," a novel, 1880. Maupassant's first prose volume was "La Maison Tellier," 1881, following one of verses, 1880. Céard's first novel was "Une Belle Journée," 1880; and Hennique's "La Dévonée," 1878. Both the latter as well as Alexis may be best classed as playwrights, their later and principal literary work having been done for the stage. Like Maupassant and Huysmans, however, they contributed with Zola to "Les Soirées de Médan," 1880, which will be noticed in its proper place.
[23] "Journal des Goncourt," Vol. V, pp. 314-315.
[24] It is probable that Flaubert had questioned the novelty of "Naturalism."