Culture in ancient times was defined as "the sum total of the equipment of the human individual, which enables him to be attuned to his immediate environment on the historical past on the other". It reflects in effect what humans have added to nature. It comprises the spiritual, material, ...

"That Zola's is not purely romantic as was Hugo's, lies chiefly in the choice of milieu. These great terrible dramas no longer happen among the personnel of a feudal and Renaissance nobility, those who are in the forefront of the marching world, but among the lower – almost the...