In my previous post I described how George Moore ruined his literary relationship with the French writer Émile Zola through some creatively tactless writing in Confessions of a Young Man. In the next couple of posts, I'm going to explore Moore's relationship with Zola in a bit more detail. So - first off - a bit of background. Zola's reception in the UK was very mixed during the nineteenth century. Known for a frank and explicit form of realism known as Naturalism, he first became famous in France during 1877 for his novel L'Assommoir which describes the lives of a working class family, Gervaise Macquart and her husband, Coupeau in one of the poorer districts of Paris. Although Coupeau rescues Gervaise from an abusive previous relationship, he turns to drink after an accident at work and they both descend into alcoholism and poverty. The title of the book, derives from a verb meaning 'to stun': it's a familiar name for small drinking establishments where wor...

Edgar Degas, 'L'Absinthe' (1875) [Supposedly set in the  Nouvelle Athènes] When the narrator's career as a painter does not work out (due to a lack of talent), he decides to become a writer instead. Accordingly Confessions of a Young Man  transforms from an account of the visual arts into a depiction of the French literary scene. The setting shifts from art school to the famous cafe culture of Paris. Chapter seven is set in the Nouvelle Athènes - a bar just off the Place Pigalle. This part of Paris became infamous in the twentieth century as a red light district, but the area did not have quite the same reputation during the period Moore describes. (The Café de la Nouvelle Athènes was replaced by a strip bar only later.) In the 1870s, Pigalle was more closely associated with the Bohemian artist types who lived in nearby Montmartre. In chapter seven, Moore relates how the café was frequented by writers such as Villiers de l'Isle Adam and painters, such as Edgar Degas...

Rudolph Julian I mentioned in my previous post that the narrator of Confessions of a Young Man moves from studying at the École des Beaux Arts to working in a smaller school based in the passage des Panoramas off the Boulevard Montmartre in the 2e arrondissement of Paris. The Académie Julian was founded in 1868 by Pierre Louis Rodolphe Julian (1839-1907), who had moved to Paris from the South of France. Moore was fascinated by Julian* and also wrote about him in an article entitled 'Meissonier and the Salon' for the Fortnightly Review in July 1890: M. Julian was once a shepherd in the south of France. In his native village he established a reputation for extraordinary strength and artistic capacity. He had thrown every young man within twenty miles in the wrestling contests, and he had astonished every one by the skill he showed in drawing. For a time his fate hung in the balance. A great wrestler or a great painter, which was he to be? Moore seems to have been greatly impres...

Ecole des Beaux Arts, Scribner's Magazine (1887) In the second chapter of Confessions of a Young Man the narrator moves to Paris, where he hopes to train as an artist. This reflects Moore's own experiences in the 1870s and offers some fascinating insights into the period. In fact, whilst tracking down historical sources to write the notes for this chapter I was struck by how frequently Moore's writings (including his fiction) have served as an important primary source for historians of the period. On arrival in Paris, the narrator enrols at the École des Beaux Arts - the central, state-sponsored artistic establishment. Entrance to the Beaux Arts was determined for French students by a competitive process, but it was possible for foreign students to bypass this by applying directly to one of the artists or professors who maintained studios within the school. It was also necessary for such foreign students to obtain a letter of introduction from their diplomatic legation.*  ...

This post carries on from the previous one in which I described how George Moore serialised Confessions of a Young Man in the magazine, Time . I explored a moral, political and religious split amongst the partners in Swan Sonnenschein, the firm who published Time and Moore’s book. So, in this post, I’ll consider how this affected Moore. Henry Vizetelly     It is important here to understand how Moore’s decision to sign up with Sonnenschein occurs at a very particular point in his career. His two previous novels, A Mummer’s Wife (1885) and A Drama in Muslin (1886) had been widely recognised as works of realism, written under the influence of the French writer, Émile Zola. The subtitle of A Drama in Muslin is even ‘A Realistic Novel’. Moore had published these novels with the firm of Henry Vizetelly, who was also making a name as a publisher of Zola’s novels in translation.     But Vizetelly’s activities were drawing criticism. Put simply, Zola’s detailed depiction...