INTRODUCTION VU

adopted an orphaned nephew and nièce, Antoine and Henriette. Antoine is idle and vicions, but Henriette is a model of industry and virtue. Antoine is instrumental in burning down Lemarié's factory and the latter, on learning the news, dies of a stroke of apoplexy.

His widow, a deeply religious woman, résolves to give her life to good works, while Henriette, who proves to be the illegitimate daughter of Lemari^ dismisses her lover, Etienne, that she may dévote herself de toute son âme to aiding Madame Lemarié. Thus absorbed, she leaves no place for her own Personal happiness.

De toute son Ame was followed in 1899 by La Terre qui meurt^ a strong and pathetic story, dealing with the problem of the struggle of the farm against cpmpetition with foreign products and against the attractive power which the town exerts upon country boys and girls.

Then came Les Oberléy 1901, followed by Donatienne in 1902. This story most strikingly exemplifies Bazin's methods and ideals. Donatienne, the wife of Jean Louarn, the tenant farmer, under the stress of increasing poverty goes to Paris as a nurse, finds vicions associâtes and falls. Instead of tracing her downward course in ail the minute détails which delight the thorough-going realist, Bazin turns toward the deserted husband and shows him struggling against poverty and dégradation, yet still keeping fast hold upon those attributes which make him a man.