"In The Shock of the New Ian Dunlop quotes first-hand accounts of the irresistible laughter provoked by the exhibits. Word would get around that in this or that there was a funny picture, and, as Zola reported in his novel L'CEuvre, "people came stampeding from every other room in the exhibition and gangs of sightseers, afraid of missing something, came pushing their way in, shouting 'Where? — "Over there!" "Oh, I say! Did you ever?""