The last of these, "Dr.Pascal," appeared in 1893.

Since then M.Zola has written "Lourdes," "Rome," and "Paris." Critics have repeated _ad nauseam_ that these last works constitute a new departure on M.Zola's part, and, so far as they formed a new series, this is true.

But the suggestion that he has in any way repented of the Rougon-Macquart novels is ridiculous.

As he has often told me of recent years, it is, as far as possible, his plan to subordinate his style and methods to his subject.

To have written a book like "Rome," so largely devoted to the ambitions of the Papal See, in the same way as he had written books dealing with the drunkenness or other vices of Paris, would have been the climax of absurdity.
Yet the publication of "Rome," was the signal for a general outcry on the part of English and American reviewers that Zolaism, as typified by the Rougon-Macquart series, was altogether a thing of the past.