he was quickly surrounded by a band of young and enthusiastic followers, whose productions in the next thirty years were the delight of France and the world. The band comprised, in addition to their illustrious chief, Balzac, Dumas, George Sand, De Vigny, Soulié, and, last but not least, the four charming, inimitable authors whose names appear on the title-page of this volume—De Musset, Karr, Gautier, and Merimée. They were all born in the years between 1803 and 1811; Musset was the first to die, in 1857; Karr survived until 1890, forming a link between the past and present; his "Visit to the Arsenal," however, bears the date 1842. Of course there were others besides, less famous, but men of mark in their day, and they all united to form a galaxy that has hardly been equaled in any literature for delicacy, taste, and brilliancy.
Of the five names selected to represent the writers of to-day, Émile Zola, the apostle of the realistic school,—which is not realism more than the work of a painter would be who should depict the slums of a great city and assert his picture to be a faithful representation of that city, ignoring its parks and palaces, its museums, gardens, and works of art,—Émile Zola is the most popular writer of the day, if judged by the sale attained by his books. But that proves—what? According to a recent statement, of "Nana," the most prurient of his books, 155,000 copies have been
