On the Fiction of the Goncourt Brothers
龚古尔兄弟的小说创作

As the immediate precursors of Naturalism, the Goncourt brothers (es Freres Goncourt) noticed the unfortunate fate of thelower classes, eg. the inevitable degradation of maid servants. The brothers examined the documents of physiological cases to find out areasonable cause for the characters' behaviours, and contended that this is the only legitimate scientific way. They lay much emphasison collecting materials from the real life, in order to choose valuable information or relevant themes. As painting appeals to them great-ly, the artistic techniques characterized by subtlety are adopted despite their slightly undesirable delicacy.