2. François Rabelais, famous for his entertaining books Gargantua (1535) and Pantagruel (1533). In his note ‘to the Reader’ in Gargantua Rabelais writes that he is not presenting any scholarly or literary feats, but a healthy dose of humour, for ‘laughter is peculiar to man’ (rire est le propre de l’homme). See François Rabelais, Les oeuvres romanesques. Ed. Françoise Joukovsky. Paris 1999, p. 5.

3. Victor Henri Marquis de Rochefort-Luçay wrote satirical articles. His groundbreaking style and controversial ideas led to his dismissal from Le Figaro. In 1868 he founded his own periodical La Lanterne, followed by La Marseillaise (1870), Le Mot d’ordre (1871) and L’Intransigeant (1880).

4. See for Voltaire’s Candide: letter 568, n. 3.

5. Edmond and Jules de Goncourt’s novel Germinie Lacerteux (1864) tells the story of the servant girl Germinie Lacerteux, who gets herself into debt and commits crimes for the man she loves, the swindler and blackmailer Jupillon. Eventually she succumbs to misery. Until her death she manages to conceal her double life from her employer Madame de Varandeuil who, when she discovers the truth about Germinie’s wretched life, arranges her funeral. In the famous preface, the authors say that henceforth they regard the novel as a ‘study’ (étude), as a ‘social investigation’ (enquête sociale); it is a plea for what became known as ‘naturalism’ not long afterwards.

6. In La fille Elisa (1877) Edmond de Goncourt narrates the tale of Elisa, a girl who has to support herself by prostitution. When she is raped by her lover, she stabs him to death and is sentenced to life imprisonment. Goncourt gives a minutely detailed description of life in prison and the novel is an indictment of an inhuman system of punishment: the governor uses a method of ‘silence therapy’, and as a result Elisa loses her mind, suffers delusions and dies.

7. Emile Zola’s novel La joie de vivre (1884) focuses on the tragic life of Pauline Quenu. ‘A chronicle of Pauline’s girlhood, puberty, and young womanhood, Zola’s narrative recounts in great detail her sexual awakening and emotional maturation, especially through her relationship with her ne’er-do-well cousin Lazare.’ The relationship fails and Pauline becomes the nursemaid in Lazare’s family. Despite her painful position and her lack of love, she is resigned to her isolation, full of self-sacrifice and servitude. ‘When, at the novel’s close, the family’s long-time servant hangs herself in despair, Pauline is nonplussed, unable to imagine why anyone would willingly relinquish the joys of life’. Zola also describes the thwarted artistic ambitions of the pianist Lazare, who impotently accedes to what society requires of him. See also Sund 1992, pp. 109-113 (quotations on p. 112).

Van Gogh had access to a copy in October 1885 – possibly even as early as April: he depicted it in Still life with Bible (F 117 / JH 946

) and may have alluded to it in letter 492.

8. See for Zola’s L’assommoir: letter 338, n. 12.

9. From remarks in the correspondence and in the light of comments made by other people it appears that Van Gogh liked the work of Joris-Karl Huysmans. As well as the books mentioned here – En ménage (1881) and A vau-l’eau (1882) – he may have been familiar with Croquis parisiens (1880). Cf. Sund, 1992, p. 144.

Emile Bernard mentioned A rebours (1884) in his ‘In memoriam’ of Van Gogh: ‘Huysmans had an inordinate attraction for him. It was En ménage in particular that he enthused over, then, later, A rebours.’ (Huysmans le captait outre mesure. Ce fut sur En ménage qu’il s’exalta surtout, puis sur A rebours, plus tard.) See Les Hommes d’Aujourd’hui 1891, no. 390, vol. 8, p. 1. In A rebours the misanthropist Jean Floressas des Esseintes rejects the life of society. He withdraws to a mansion, where he tries to fulfil his most extravagant fantasies. Several chapters deal with the decoration and the different colours of the interior, and the symbolism of bricks, flowers, perfumes etc. With its extreme aesthetic preferences the book caused a literary scandal, but decadents and symbolists raved about it. For De Maupassant’s Bel-ami, see letter 568, n. 11.

11. Cf. Matt. 5:14; John 8:12 and John 9:5.

12. After this Van Gogh crossed out: ‘which brought about so much good at the time’ (die toen zooveel goeds hebben teweeg gebragt).

13. This probably refers to his ‘love affair’ with Agostina Segatori.

14. In September 1884 Van Gogh had proposed to Margot Begemann, who lived next door to his parents in Nuenen – with dramatic consequences; see letters 456 ff.

15. The De Groot family lived in what is now Gerwenseweg, near De Roosdonck windmill, and consisted at that time of the mother, Cornelia de Groot-Van Rooij, and her children Hendrikus, Peter and Gordina (Van Gogh calls her ‘Sien’, but her first name must have been ‘Dien’); their father, Cornelis de Groot, had died by then.

Several other members of Cornelia de Groot-Van Rooij’s family lived in the cottage where Van Gogh got his idea for The potato eaters. On 20 October 1885 Gordina, who was unmarried, had a son, Cornelis; the birth certificate does not state who the father was. It can be inferred from Van Gogh’s question about Gordina’s marriage that he suspected that one of her cousins was the father, or that one of them would give the fallen woman the protection of his name. Cf. RHC, birth certificate of Cornelis de Groot; exhib. cat. ’s-Hertogenbosch 1987, p. 161; and De Brouwer 1984, pp. 81-83, 96.

16. The potato eaters (F 82/ JH 764

17. The portraits Père Tanguy (F 363 / JH 1351

) and Père Tanguy (F 364 / JH 1352) and Etienne-Lucien Martin (F 289 / JH 1203) date from this time.

18. Saying, associated with Mme de Staël, Corinne ou L’Italie (1807): ‘tout comprendre rend très-indulgent’ (book 18, chapter 5) and Terence, Eunuchus, prol. 42.

19. Ljev Nikolaevich Tolstoy, A la recherche du bonheur. Traduit et précédé d’une préface par M.E. Halpérine. Paris 1886. Van Gogh read either this edition or the 1887 reprint. We know from a letter from Theo to Willemien, dated Monday, 25 April 1887, that Tolstoy’s work was sent to Theo and Vincent from the Netherlands. Theo found it ‘magnifique’ and wrote that Vincent had also enjoyed it very much (FR b911). The anthology consists of a series of folk tales about divine omniscience and human vices and virtues, including forgiveness, compassion and greed; some of the stories are like fairy tales (with apparitions, an angel and talking animals), while others are realistic (about agricultural labourers and artisans).

20. In Guy de Maupassant’s Mont-Oriol (1887), the businessman William Andermatt discovers that in Enval, where his childless wife Christiane is staying, a healing, productive spring has been discovered in the vineyard belonging to the gentleman farmer Oriol. He transforms this find into a commercial enterprise with a luxury spa. Christiane meanwhile becomes pregnant after an affair with the eccentric Paul Brétigny, while Andermatt believes he has become a father thanks to the effects of the spring. By the time the first buildings are open for business, Brétigny’s ardour has cooled to such an extent that he marries the wealthy Oriol’s daughter. Demoralized, Christiane has the baby and prevents Paul from seeing it.

21. The story ‘D’ou vient le mal’ in A la recherche du bonheur ends as follows: ‘It is from our own nature that evil comes; for it is our nature that gives rise to hunger, and to love, and to malice, and to fear’ (C’est de notre propre nature que vient le mal; car c’est elle qui engendre et la faim, et l’amour, et la méchanceté, et la peur) (Paris 1886, p. 6).

22. This derives from Hippolyte Adolphe Taine, Histoire de la littérature anglaise who said in his ‘Introduction’: ‘Vice and virtue are products, like vitriol and sugar’ (Le vice et la vertu sont des produits, comme le vitriol et le sucre). See 6th ed. Paris 1885, vol. 1, p. xv. In 1868, Zola had sent his novel Thérèse Raquin to Sainte-Beuve for his comments. In his written reply of 10 June 1868, Sainte-Beuve quoted this pronouncement of Taine’s, which was then included as the motto in the second edition of the novel. Van Gogh had read both Taine and Thérèse Raquin (see letter 359).