I find this—to confine ourselves strictly to the famous society so often mentioned in the Journal —eminently in Flaubert, and as far as one can judge from translations, in Tourguénieff; I find it, to a less extent, in Daudet; I find it sometimes even in Zola, especially, but not merely, in his shorter stories; I find it again, and abundantly, in Maupassant.
— from A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century by George Saintsbury