A writer’s training: The study of a feature of Zola’s correspondence
La formation de l’écrivain
Résumé
One of the interesting features of Zola’s correspondence is the understanding it provides of his conception of the training of writers: his own and that of others. Without a mentor at the beginning of his career, the early letters demonstrate that, under the guise of giving advice to his friends, Zola is in fact encouraging himself to work. Then, having become the master of Naturalism, we see him lavishing his recommendations on other authors, while also presenting himself as their equal, expressing both his satisfactions and his doubts, his ambition and his modesty.
L’un des enjeux de la correspondance de Zola est d’appréhender sa conception de la formation de l’écrivain : la sienne et celle d’autrui. Sans mentor à ses débuts, les premières lettres prouvent que, sous couvert de conseils à ses amis, c’est lui-même que Zola exhorte au travail. Puis, devenu le maître du naturalisme, on le voit prodiguer ses recommandations, mais aussi se présenter comme l’égal des autres auteurs, exprimer ses satisfactions comme ses doutes, et son ambition comme sa modestie.