Yay! 'Tis the month of April, and April brings so much literary joy to me. The number of authors born this month is humongous. Let me start with Emile Zola. Born today in 1840, Zola was influenced by Balzac, Stendhal, Charles Darwin and Flaubert among many others. He wrote about the derelict society under the influence of alcohol and violence which became more prevalent during the second wave of industrial revolution in France. In one of his most famous works, The Masterpiece he wrote, From the moment I start a new novel, life’s just one endless torture. The first few chapters may go fairly well and I may feel there’s still a chance to prove my worth, but that feeling soon disappears and every day I feel less and less satisfied. I begin to say the book’s no good, far inferior to my earlier ones, until I’ve wrung torture out of every page, every sentence, every word, and the very commas begin to look excruciatingly ugly. Then, when it’s finished, what a relief! Not the ...
"Some of the sweetest things in life are through greatest struggling battles"