sobriety -- these are the qualities he was ever
praising. The real, the truthful, the sincere --
these are what he sought always to attain.

Daudet may lack the poignant intensity of
Balzac, the lyric sweep of Hugo, the immense
architectural strength of M. Zola, the implacable
disinterestedness of Flaubert, the marvelous con-
centration of Maupassant, but he has more humor
than any of them and more charm -- more sym-
pathy than any but Hugo, and more sincerity
than any but Flaubert. His is perhaps a rarer
combination than any of theirs -- the gift of
story-telling, the power of character-drawing, the
grasp of emotional situation, the faculty of analy-
sis, the feeling for form, the sense of style, an
unfailing and humane interest in his fellow-men,
and an irresistible desire to tell the truth about
life as he saw it with his own eyes.

( 1898)

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