L'Art moderne (1883)
A volume of salons (18) by one of M. Zola's "young men" may amuse some readers. M. Huysmans's criticism in art, like his master's in literature, is a curious mixture of native shrewdness, ludicrous prejudice, and the misappreciation which the absence of wide and patient reading and cultivation naturally cause. It would be difficult to find a better example, except M. Zola himself, of the rather intelligent Philistine who thinks he despises Philistines. The style is of course entirely beneath contempt.