Hispanic references to Zola and experimental medicine in 1868

Abstract

Putting forward the date of Zola’s Hispanic impact, this article provides comments about Thérèse Raquin by the Diario de Reus’ correspondent in Paris (very likely, Angel Vallejo Miranda) and a mention as an editor of La Tribune by Josep Coroleu in El Principado, of Barcelona. While one, coinciding with Louis Ulbach, censures the depraved and medical character of various novels (such as also La Comtesse de Châlis, by Ernest-Aimé Feydeau), the other defends the realism of this work and, quoting Claude Bernard, the experimental method. Although Zola’s naturalism had yet to develop, these texts manifest two opposing attitudes, which acquire a wide range of hues.