About the lives of Beethoven, Flaubert, Daudet, Zola and Turgenev

Ludwig van Beethoven

Introduction

Born in Bonn, Germany in 1770, his ancestral home is Flanders

< p> Introduction to Beethoven's life

"Strive to do good, love freedom above all else, even if it is for the throne, do not forget the truth." - Beethoven (notes in 1792)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a great German composer and one of the representatives of the Vienna classical music school. He played a decisive role in the development of world music and was revered as the "Saint of Music". Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770 in Bonn, a small town on the Rhine River not far from France. He was born into the Flemish family, a musical family. His grandfather, Lutwik, was the music director of the Bonn court orchestra, and his father was a court tenor singer. His mother was a maid, the daughter of a cook. Beethoven's musical genius has been revealed since he was a child. His father was eager to train him to become a child prodigy like Mozart. He forced him to learn piano and violin from an early age. When he was eight years old, he began to perform in concerts and try to compose music. , however, the music education he received during this period has been very fragmented and unsystematic.

At the age of twelve, he was already able to play freely and served as the assistant of the organist Nie Fei (1748-1798). It was at this time that he began to formally study music with Nie Fei. Nie Fei was a musician with many talents. He expanded Beethoven's artistic vision, made Beethoven familiar with some excellent examples of German classical art, and consolidated Beethoven's understanding of lofty purposes. Beethoven's formal learning and systematic upbringing actually began with Nie Fei's careful teaching and training: Nie Fei also guided him to Vienna to teach Mozart in 1787. After hearing his performance, Mozart predicted that Beethoven would one day shock the world. Beethoven received news of his mother's death soon after arriving in Vienna, and he had to rush back to Bonn immediately. Due to family burdens, he did not come to Vienna for the second time until the death of his father in the autumn of 1792, but by this time Mozart was no longer alive. After Beethoven came to Vienna for the second time, he quickly won the title of Vienna's most outstanding performer (especially improvisation). Later, he first studied with Haydn, and later with Schenck, Albrecht Berg and Salieri. Through his contacts with the intellectual Breining in Bonn, he came into contact with many famous professors, writers and musicians at that time, and from them he was influenced by the ideological trend of the "Turbulence Movement". His democratic ideas had reached maturity in the years before the French Revolution, but they grew particularly rapidly during the revolutionary years.

Full name: Gustave Flaubert

Year of birth: 1821-1880

Important French critical realist writer

Gustave Flaubert, an important French critical realist writer in the mid-19th century, was born on December 17, 1821 in Rouen to a famous surgeon family. His works reflect the style of the times in France from 1848 to 1871, exposing the ugly and vulgar bourgeois society. His "objective and indifferent" creative theory and meticulous artistic style are unique in the history of French literature.

Life and Creation

He studied law in Paris when he was young, but dropped out of school due to illness. After his father's death, he lived with his widowed mother in Croisset, a suburb of Rouen. He lived on his rich inheritance and devoted himself to literary creation. He often travels around, consciously inspecting society and understanding rural life. He lived during the period of rising and developing capitalism in France, but he had a relatively clear understanding of the prosperity of capitalism.

Starting in 1852, Flaubert spent more than four years writing the novel "Madame Bovary". The novel reproduces the provincial life in France in the mid-19th century with concise and delicate writing. The heroine Emma spent her youth in a monastery and was influenced by romanticism. After adulthood, she married Bovary, a mediocre town doctor. Disappointed, she was seduced by the playboy Rodolfo and became his mistress. But Rodolfo was just having fun, and soon got tired of her and stayed away from her. Emma then became Leon's mistress again. In order to satisfy her selfish desires, Emma borrowed loan sharks, which led to bankruptcy and finally committed suicide by taking poison. The novel caused a sensation in the literary world as soon as it came out, and Flaubert gained a high reputation. However, he was sued by the authorities for defaming religion and being indecent. This matter put a lot of pressure on him, so his creation turned to ancient themes. Five years later, Flaubert published his second novel "Salambao", describing the uprising of mercenaries and people in Carthage BC. The author uses realism to reproduce the broad scenes of the fierce social struggle at that time.

The Paris Commune uprising in 1871 did not have a great impact on Flaubert's creation. He devoted himself to revising the old draft of "The Temptation of Saint Anton". The novel tells the story of a saint in medieval Egypt who overcame various temptations of the devil, expressing the author's extreme disgust for society's greed. From 1875 to 1876, Flaubert had a literary dispute with George Sand. George Sand accused him of being too objective and lacking in emotion, prompting Flaubert to write "Three Stories".

The three stories written each have unique styles and themes. "St. Julian's Epilogue" is adapted from religious legends; "Herodias" describes the disputes within Christianity in the Middle East in the Middle East; "A Simple Heart" is the most outstanding short story among them. It writes about the ordinary and touching life of a maid. Through the details of daily life, the author creates a simple and touching image of a working woman, showing her beautiful and kind heart and brave and witty qualities. Gorky praised this short story for "hiding an incredible magic".

Flaubert's last novel, "Buffat et Baicuchet" is one chapter short of completion. It can be said to be a companion piece to "Education Sentiment". It mainly describes the repercussions caused by the revolution of 1848 in the French provinces. Buffa and Bai Juxie were two scribes. After Bai Juxie received a huge inheritance, he settled in the countryside with his close friend Buffa. The two studied agriculture, chemistry, geology, history, literature, etc. Then discard them one by one. When news of the revolution reached the countryside in February 1848, they turned to the study of philosophy, theology, education, and law, but in the end they achieved nothing and returned to their old profession.

Artistic Achievements

Flaubert believed that art should reflect real life and dare to expose ugly phenomena. He was an outstanding master of realism in accurately reproducing social reality. However, he advocated that literature should describe things strictly, meticulously, and faithfully, and that literature can depict ugly life phenomena truthfully, which opened the way for naturalism in the late 19th century.

His artistic achievements are mainly reflected in the creation of models. He is good at creating a series of typical characters with outstanding personalities in short novels. To this end, he pays great attention to observing things, collecting materials, and paying attention to the authenticity of details. He created typical characters while also paying attention to the description of the environment. He often conducts extensive surveys and field trips. In terms of description, he usually uses line drawing techniques and concise language to capture features and enhance the atmosphere. He particularly emphasized the important role of language. In order to hone the language and sentences, they often think over and over again. He believed that “there are no beautiful thoughts without beautiful forms, and vice versa.” Therefore, his words are concise, clear and precise. He was Maupassant's literary and spiritual mentor, and he was also recognized as a master of language arts by his peers in many countries around the world.

Flaubert's masterpiece

Flaubert's masterpiece is "Madame Bovary" "Madame Bovary" is the masterpiece of the famous French Flaubert. The author uses concise and delicate writing to reproduce the social life of France in the mid-19th century through the experience of Emma, ??a passionate woman. The artistic form of "Madame Bovary" makes it a new turning point in modern novels. Since the publication of Madame Bovary, novelists have known that even novels must be carefully crafted. This is not only an exemplary novel, but also an exemplary essay. However, "Madame Bovary" also caused trouble for the author. Many people took notice and criticized Flaubert's book for "undermining social morality and religion." He was also summoned by the court: it turned out that someone accused him of "indecent morals." At this time, many readers expressed their sympathy and support to Flaubert, and even the romantic writers who had always opposed him defended him. In court, after a fierce debate, the writer was acquitted - this shows the influence of "Madame Bovary".

Artistic Contribution

Milan Kundera has a widely circulated saying, to the effect that it was not until the emergence of Flaubert that novels finally caught up with poetry. As we all know, European novels first differentiated from narrative poems. In other words, the part describing the course of events in narrative poetry was stripped away and gradually became a specialized storytelling genre. With the birth of the novel, poetry lost its natural right to "narrate" and became more lyrical. However, compared with the ancient art of poetry, there is no doubt that novels are naive. It’s no wonder that it has long suffered from neglect and discrimination. In my opinion, the immaturity of the novel is not only that it has not yet been fully developed as a specialized art, but more importantly, its relationship with poetry is very ambiguous, and it has not got rid of its dependence on the mother body of poetry. Its own special and strict stylistic regulations failed to form for a long time. The story-telling nature of early novels has been greatly enhanced, but poetry can also tell stories, and at one time it was very good at telling stories. So what is the difference between novels and narrative poems? Even the evaluation criteria for the art of fiction are borrowed from poetry. The most obvious example is that to this day, the most commonly used vocabulary when evaluating a great novel is still "this kind of great epic". The "epic" style is still the highest criterion for judging novels. This is like saying that you have achieved success in the realm of novels, but you have to go to the realm of poetry to receive your rewards.

About "Madame Bovary"

The appearance of Flaubert was of epoch-making significance, and "Madame Bovary" is considered to be "the code of new art". A "most perfect novel" that "produced revolutionary consequences in the literary world." Baudelaire, Saint-Uncle, Zola and others all gave this work high praise. Due to the publication of this work, Flaubert overnight became a master of novels comparable to Balzac and Stendhal, and was universally recognized as an outstanding stylist. Flaubert's great reputation is due in large part to the impeccable stylistic achievement of Madame Bovary.

By the beginning of this century, Flaubert's influence was growing day by day, and modernist novelists also regarded him as their ancestor and model. Especially the French "New Novel" after the 1950s, they highly praised Flaubert, and they believed that he was the founder and model of modernism. It was Flaubert who gave the novel a status alongside poetry. In order to carry out the so-called literary revolution, Alain Robbe-Grillet, an important representative of the new novel, regarded Flaubert as the true teacher and enlightener in the art of narrative. He even regarded Flaubert as the opposite of Balzac and criticized Balzac. Zack's "outdated" writing style is thoroughly criticized and liquidated. So, what extraordinary achievements has Madame Bovary achieved in terms of style and narrative, and what role has it played in the development of the novel?

The first summary of the first volume of "Madame Bovary" uses the first person to narrate the story. From the second summary to the end of the work, the third person is used. This sentence appears in the first line of this work: "We were in self-study when the principal came in, followed by a new student without uniform and a school janitor carrying a big desk."

Here, the word "we" is not written casually, it has an extraordinary meaning. You may wish to recall how Balzac's novels usually begin. For example: "Louis Rambert was born in 1797 in Monteval, a small town in the Vendée province, where his father ran an inconspicuous tannery" (Balzac's "Louis Rambert") . Someone once asked the question about this beginning: Who is telling this story? Is it the author? Why is the author's tone so unquestionable? Why does he know everything? Of course, not every novel reader will ask such a question, but this firm, clear, and omniscient tone shows that the author is above the story and the reader, and there is no doubt about it. And the tone has yet to completely escape the oral form of storytelling. If someone asks the same question about Madame Bovary: Who is telling the story of Madame Bovary? The answer is "we"; how does the narrator know? The answer is "we see"; and when the narrator "sees", the reader also sees. The time when the story unfolds is synchronized with the time when the reader reads (in Balzac, the story has already happened). In this way, the author brings the reader into the scene of the event at once. Compared with Balzac, here The story is obviously more realistic. From today's perspective, similar first-person narrative is not a great thing, but at that time, the significance of this small step taken by Flaubert was extraordinary. And I think Flaubert’s stylistic contribution was certainly not just a change of pronouns. Behind this change, a narrative method that is completely different from Hugo, Stendhal, and Balzac has truly been established. In Flaubert's writing, the previous omniscient narrative perspective has been strictly restricted: the author cannot He will no longer stand in an omniscient position and imitate God's voice; he will not "appear" from the narrative at any time to comment on the characters and themes of the work and provide meaning; he will no longer have the ability to impose his own thoughts and tendencies on readers privileges.

Flaubert was one of the earliest writers in the history of European literature who asked authors to withdraw from novels and began to successfully implement this creed in practice. He requires the narrative to exclude all subjective lyricism, exclude the author's voice, and let the facts reveal themselves. He believes that it is not allowed for readers to vaguely feel or guess the author's intentions and tendencies; every paragraph and every word in a literary work should not have any trace of the author's ideas. As his student Maupassant said, Flaubert always "hides himself deeply in his works, carefully covering the strings in his hands like a puppeteer, trying not to let the audience detect his voice as much as possible" ". Flaubert also wrote this in a letter to George Sand: "When it comes to my ideals for art, I believe that one should not expose himself. The artist should not show up in his works, just as God should not show up in his works. "Appear in nature." French scholar Bruner once pointed out keenly, "In the history of French novels, "Madame Bovary" has epoch-making significance. It shows the end of something and the beginning of something." Flaubert's voice can be clearly heard in the later narrative theories of Roland Barthes, Derrida and others. If the history of the stylistic changes in European novels can be seen as the history of the author's voice constantly fading from the works, as described by Booth, then Flaubert is undoubtedly a key figure that cannot be ignored.

Some students may put forward this view: Since novels are fictional, a tacit understanding has been reached between the author and the reader. In other words, the reader has already accepted the novel in advance before reading it. The fact that the novel is fictional is not important, so how the author tells the story (whether it is an objective or subjective narrative) is not important. What is important is whether the work can impress the readers. What's more, the author deliberately hides himself in the work and It has not completely given up "guiding" readers, but this "guidance" is more subtle and clever. The abandonment of one kind of rhetoric will inevitably mean the establishment of another kind of rhetoric. In the final analysis, "objectification" can only be a rhetorical means. I think this view is very interesting and reasonable. Frankly speaking, I also understand the significance of Flaubert’s stylistic changes from a rhetorical perspective.

In fact, Flaubert hides himself from the narrative just for the purpose of better "revealing"; the purpose of restricting the narrative perspective is precisely to allow the narrative to gain greater freedom.

In a narrative from an omniscient perspective, the communication between the author and the readers is open (in ancient story-telling situations, the audience can even directly ask questions to the narrator or have discussions): The author tells , readers read. But Flaubert was not satisfied with this kind of open communication, because the effect of communication was limited. He prefers a kind of secret communication, that is to say, the author does not tell the readers his own opinions and tendencies, but allows the readers to draw their own conclusions through reading. In this way, the territory of communication between the readers and the author is suddenly expanded. .

Flaubert’s objectified narrative does not completely give up his right to “guide” readers. Because judging from the work "Madame Bovary", the author's own tendencies, stances and intentions can still be felt by us in reading. Also, I don’t agree with the statement “purely objective”. Because this concept confuses some otherwise clear facts. Moreover, "Madame Bovary" is not a "purely objective" work. It is essentially different from what Robbe-Grillet and others later called "materialized novels" and "purely objective narratives" of the "New Novel" ( I'm not saying that Robbe-Grillet's works are without merit, at least his "Jealousy" is quite good), but after Robbe-Grillet took some of Flaubert's rhetorical interests to extremes, a new generation appeared immediately afterwards. A problem that he himself did not expect: Whether it is "impersonal narrative" or purely objective or materialized narrative, how can the author achieve this kind of "pure objectivity"? An obvious fact is that writers cannot write without the tool of language. Language is inherently a product of "culture". It is neither "pure" nor "object". How can "pure objectivity" be achieved? What is it if not a myth? Later, Robbe-Grillet simply stopped writing novels (it is said that he recently returned to his old career) and went to make movies because he felt that the camera was closer to his "materialization" requirements. In my opinion, this still cannot be justified. The camera is certainly a thing, but the person who operates the camera is also a product of "culture". He or she has his or her own special values ??and emotions of joy, hate, sorrow, and joy. How can it be "purely objective"?

As far as "Madame Bovary" is concerned, Flaubert's changes did not abandon traditional narrative resources, nor did they damage the harmony and perfection of the work's style, and most importantly, the sense of narrative proportions. We have said before that writers like Leo Tolstoy are unlikely to be easily imitated. His huge talent is a miracle in itself (Zweig said that he is greater than the great men), and Flaubert's He has more characteristics of a craftsman. There is no doubt that he is an excellent craftsman. "Madame Bovary" is a carefully crafted masterpiece that has become a symbol of "perfection" since its release. Flaubert was very sensitive to language and style, and his creative attitude was conscientious and meticulous. In "Madame Bovary", the author did not deal with any details or clues casually, and strived to achieve perfection. The rhythm of the narrative, the propriety of the language, the arrangement of speed and intensity are all just right. The order of appearance of each character in the work, the proportion they occupy in the story, and the relationship between the main characters and secondary characters all conform to specific proportions. For example, Emma first met Leon, but when the relationship between Emma and Leon heated up rapidly, the author asked him to go to Paris. The huge emotional void left by Leon's departure made her fly into a moth. He fell into the arms of Rodolfo, and when Emma and Rodolfo's emotions cooled down, Leon came back from Paris. This arrangement not only makes the development of the plot reasonable and reasonable, but also causes ups and downs in the narrative, avoiding the common problem of straightforward narration. For another example, the viscount and the blind man are both symbolic characters in the work. Although they are not written much, they have a specific meaning every time they appear, which seems to indicate some subtle changes in the progress of the story. Emma's "slip" (she and Rodolfo fall into the river of desire) is very important in the story of the novel, but the place chosen by the author is neither Rodolfo's cabin nor the woods and gardens where they walked. , but was creatively arranged in the conference hall of an agricultural exhibition. In the meantime, Rodolfo's verbal offensive against Emma was often interrupted by the speeches of the president of the conference. False love vows and confessions are completely juxtaposed with words such as bulls, seeds, medals, and cesspools, without any explanation by the author. The whole flirting process seems funny and ridiculous, but the words are filled with suppressed and impatient desire. The tension created by the display of different types of discourse makes this scene very memorable. In fact, it's the most beautiful chapter on flirting I've ever read.

Daudet, Alphonse

Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897) was a famous French realist writer and novelist in the 19th century, and an academician of the Gong (Gong) Academy.

He was born in a dilapidated silk merchant family in the city of Nimes in southern France. Forced by poverty, he worked as a supervisor (similar to a self-study tutor) in an elementary school at the age of fifteen, making a living on his own.

In 1857, when he was 17 years old, he went to Paris with his poem "Female Lovers" (1858) and began his literary and artistic creation. In 1866, the publication of "The Mill Letters", a collection of essays and stories, brought him the reputation of a novelist. .

Two years after the publication of "The Mill Letters", the 28-year-old Dodd published his first novel "The Little Thing" (1868), which gained widespread fame.

"Little Things" semi-autobiographically describes the author's experience as a teenager when his family was in trouble and had to run for a living. It depicts the interpersonal relationships in capitalist society in a playful and humorous tone. Cold relationship. This novel is Daudet's representative work. It embodies the author's artistic style, non-malicious irony and implicit sentimentality, which is the so-called tearful smile. Therefore, Daudet is known as the Dickens of France.

When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, Daudet enlisted in the army. War life provided him with new creative themes. Later, he created many patriotic short stories based on war life. In 1873, he published the famous short story collection "Sunday Stories", most of which were based on this war. Among them, "The Last Lesson" and "The Siege of Berlin" enjoy a high reputation due to their profound patriotic content and superb artistic skills, and have become masterpieces of short stories in the world. They were later compiled into the author's collection of novels. "Collection of Stories on Sunday".

"The Last Lesson" was written in 1873. It describes the last French lesson in a rural primary school in Alsace, which was ceded to Prussia after the Franco-Prussian War, and bid farewell to the language of the motherland. Through a child The self-narration of an ignorant primary school student vividly expresses the pain of the French people under foreign rule and their love for their motherland. Although the subject matter of the work is small, it is carefully cut, the narrative is appropriately detailed, and the theme is explored deeply. Little Franz's psychological activities are described in a delicate and moving way. Very vivid. As a typical example of a patriotic intellectual, the teacher Mr. Hamel has a lifelike image. It has been translated into languages ??around the world and is often selected as a Chinese language textbook for primary and secondary school students. There is also a translation in China. The novel is based on the events of Prussia's forced annexation of Alsace and Lorraine after its victory over France. It deeply expresses the deep patriotism of the French people through what a primary school student saw, heard and felt during his last French class.

But "The Last Lesson" is actually a fabrication by Daudet that ignores historical facts and confuses right and wrong. At that time, most of the residents of Alsace spoke German dialects, and the Alsace region had long been part of the German region. It was not until 1648 that it became an "informal protectorate" of France. It was not until the French occupation of Strasbourg during the Louis XIV period that formal rule over the area was established, but Alsace still gained the unique status of autonomy. In 1871, after France's defeat, Alsace was annexed to Germany. After Germany was defeated in World War I in 1918, the area was transferred to France. To this day, the vast majority of people in the region still speak German and very few French. According to the British "Encyclopedia Britannica" Volume 1, page 245 - "After World War I, the French government attempted to assimilate the area, especially in an attempt to replace the local traditional church schools with national schools, and banned the publication of German newspapers (German is the local written language used by 75% of the population)”. The consequence was: "The Alsatian autonomy movement flourished, seeking autonomy in France and within the country." Later, the French government gave up these measures of cultural assimilation, and the autonomy movement ceased.

In 1871, Alsace had a population of 1.5 million. There are indeed 50,000 French-speaking people among them. After France was defeated, most of those 50,000 people later moved to France.

Even if Daudet's description is true, it only reflects the experience of a very small part of the French people. In the past, due to underdeveloped information circulation, it was difficult for other countries to understand the inside story of this matter, so many countries mistakenly included this article in their textbooks. But today, Dude's approach has been exposed. As a reader, you must distinguish right from wrong.

Dude's short stories have a unique style of euphemism, twists and turns, and full of suggestiveness. In 1878 and 1896, he published "Selected Stories" and "Winter Stories" respectively.

After the Franco-Prussian War, there was a prolific period for Tudor novels. *** wrote twelve novels, among which the more famous one is "Dardalon of Darrascon" (1872), which satirizes the bourgeois mediocrity. ), "Romont and Lesley" (1874), which exposed the decadence of bourgeois family life, and "Numa Loomesdown" (1881), which portrayed the image of a bourgeois politician who was skillful in maneuvering. Sappho" (1884), "The Immortal" (1888), etc.

Daudet created a typical image of a boastful mediocre person in "Dadalan of Tarascon City". The novel uses comic techniques to satirize the bluff heroism of some people in the bourgeoisie.

"Jacques" narrates the life experience and struggle of a poor boy, similar to "Little Things".

In "The Rich", the author writes the story of a nouveau riche who went bankrupt and even died after arriving in Paris, which vividly outlines the ugly social customs during the Second Empire.

"Numa Lumesdown" writes about how a politician who is good at maneuvering climbed to the high position of a minister, and successfully created a typical image of a bourgeois politician.

"The Immortal" mainly satirizes the French Academy, the highest scientific institution. The protagonist in the book is just a mediocre scholar. He worked hard all his life and finally got into the French Academy and became known as the Immortal. Academician, but his treatises were found to be pseudo-scientific.

"Sappho" is a vulgar love story about a romantic woman named Sappho, which was criticized by the French Marxist critic Rafael Fague. Daudet was a prolific writer. In addition to writing a large number of novels, he also published two memoirs, "Reminiscences of a Writer" and "Thirty Years in Paris" in 1888. His play Les Demoiselles d'Alay (1872) was made into an opera by French musicians.

He wrote thirteen novels, one script and four collections of short stories in his lifetime. Among the more famous novels, in addition to "The Little Thing", there are also "Dar Daragon" (1872), which satirizes the bourgeois mediocrity, and "Brother Fromon and the Long Met Lesley" (1874), which exposes bourgeois life. . Daudet agreed with Zola's naturalistic theory of creation, but he did not describe reality indifferently.

His nearly one hundred short stories, each of which is generally two to three thousand words, feature concise and vivid writing style, rich and colorful themes, novel and ingenious conception, and simple, elegant and light style.

In literary theory, Daudet agreed with many of Zola's naturalistic creative views. However, in his creative practice, he is not like a scientist who purely objectively records human activities in the laboratory and describes social reality indifferently. As he said in "Little Things", my story is just borrowing La Fontaine's fable and adding my own experience to it. Daudet's works are all filled with his own experiences, and we can see his joy, melancholy, anger and tears. He made humorous ridicule and gentle criticism of the decadent and declining French capitalism at that time, and the basic tendency of his works was progressive.

Generally speaking, his creative tendency is to criticize the reality of capitalism. However, his social vision is not broad enough and his criticism is not deep enough. His exposure is often limited to social conditions and human customs, while his sympathy for ordinary people who suffer misfortune under the capitalist system is almost compassionate. He often uses little people he is familiar with as his subjects of description, and observes them with a kind and slightly humorous eye. His observations are meticulous and he is good at digging out some unique things from life, expressing them in a simple and natural style, and injecting his own feelings deeply into the lines. Therefore, his works often have a soft poetic flavor and moving charm!

[Edit this paragraph] Daudet anecdotes

Daudet (1840～1897)

Daudet, Alphonse

French writer. Born in Provence on May 13, 1840 and died in Paris on December 15, 1897. In 1857, he went to Paris and began literary creation with the help of his brother, historian Aleister Daudet. In 1860, he worked in the office of the Duke of Morny and had the opportunity to travel back to the South and Algeria. He is quite accomplished in short stories, the most famous ones being "The Mill Notes" and "The Last Lesson" and "The Siege of Berlin" in "Yue Yao Stories". He has written 12 novels, among which "The Little Thing", "Dadalan of Darathagon" and "Sappho" are the most outstanding. Daudet was a believer in Zola's naturalism. He also wrote novels such as "The Regal", "Numa Lumesdown" and "The Immortals" that exposed the social reality of the Second Empire. However, his works were characterized by satire and compassion. The main style of writing is not as bold and majestic as Zola's novels. He suffered from neurosis at the age of 42 and continued to create despite his illness for the next 15 years.