IV INTRODUCTION

things as they are, a faculty which implies much more than merely accurate observation; it demands also real sympathy and affection, an appréciation of the intimate connection which exists between men and their surroundings. His interest in the characters he portrays is not simply the interest of an author in the créatures of his fancy; one feels that he knew and loved them in real life, before giving them form and substance in literature. He is a realist in the best sensé of the word. He notes the significant traits in character, but they are always the redeeming traits. He is not blind to the existence of evil, but he deliberately turns aside from it and seeks the good.

His article Le Roman populaire^ in Le Correspondant^ Vol. 195, 1899, is a clear exposition of his literary ideals. The common people, he says, are eager for the best things in literature, but they are offered only the sensational continued stoxy, feuilleton^ published in the daily paper. Thèse stories may be true to life, but they depict life robbed of ail ennobling éléments and ruled only by the lowest, basest motives.

Certain novçlists hold that true art and true literature can exist only for the sélect few, and that the moment they^become popular, mediocrity is the inevitable resuit. But Bazin dénies this; he asserts, on the contrary, that those who write for the chosen few are the very ones who hâve lost sight of the principes of real literature^ they are so absorbed in the analysis of a single passion that life in its entirety