Emile ZOLABiblio.com
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1866Best.-Nr. 85365Paris: Achille Faure 1866. Fine. Achille Faure Paris 1866 11 x 18 cm relié The rare first edition of this early novel by the author overshadowed by the Rougon-Macquart series but which prefigures naturalism and whose story is based on a news item. The novel is followed by Esquisses parisiennes a collection of 4 short stories. The second edition would not appear until 1889 with Charpentier. Contemporary half-brown shagreen binding. Smooth spine decorated with black fillets. Signs of rubbing and corners slightly bumped. Achille Faure unknown
1893Best.-Nr. 85495Paris: Charpentier 1893. Fine. Charpentier Paris 1893 12 x 19 cm relié First edition on ordinary paper. The genealogical table is lacking in our copy. Half-red shagreen binding spine with four raised bands decorated with triple gilt compartments gilt name at foot blind-ruled frame on red paper boards pebbled paper endpapers and pastedowns contemporary binding. Charpentier hardcover
1887Best.-Nr. 85323Paris: G. Charpentier & Cie 1887. Fine. G. Charpentier & Cie Paris 1887 12 x 19 cm broché First edition printed on ordinary paper. Heavy foxing primarily at the beginning and end of the volume. In original wrappers as issued. G. Charpentier & Cie unknown
1922Best.-Nr. 85646Paris: Editions Mornay 1922. Fine. Editions Mornay Paris 1922 15.50 x 20.50 cm broché Edition illustrated with 1 frontispiece in colors 2 figures hors-texte 1 title vignette 50 head-pieces 50 initials and 50 tailpieces finely engraved on wood after drawings by Maurice Achener one of 946 numbered copies on deckle-edged paper. Endpapers very lightly and partially shadowed without any significance. Handsome copy of this work adapted for cinema by Georges Franju in 1970 with in the main roles Francis Huster Gillian Hills and Lucien Barjon. Editions Mornay unknown
1880Best.-Nr. C216217Paris: G. Charpentier 1880. Hardcover Hardcover. Very Good. Early reprint 1880. Small octavo. 524pp. Bound in contemporary black cloth with gilt spine titles. Slight wear and rubbing to covers slight nicking to spine ends and splitting to upper spine hinge lacks front endpaper pages with tanning to edges and slight scattered foxing otherwise near very good. No jacket. G. Charpentier, hardcover
1894Best.-Nr. 85696Paris: FlammarionHenri Floury 1894. Fine. Flammarion Henri Floury Paris 1894-1896 17.50 x 26 cm 2 volumes en reliures de l'éditeur First edition of each volume. Publishers full burgundy cloth bindings flat spines blue endpapers and pastedowns original wrappers preserved for the second volume front cover preserved for the first volume gilt top edges. Minor discoloration spots on the boards. The first volume includes 75 biographies of notable figures of the time each featuring a facsimile autograph and a wood-engraved portrait by Brauer including Paul Arène Léon Cladel Coquelin ainé Charles Gounod Frédéric Mistral Albert Robida Octave Uzanne. The second volume contains 76 biographies each with a facsimile autograph and a wood-engraved portrait by Brauer of figures such as Auguste Bartholdi Benjamin Constant Georges Courteline Alexandre Dumas Thomas Edison Judith Gautier Jules Massenet Catulle Mendès Henri Rochefort Georges Rochegrosse Emile Zola. Some light foxing. A handsome set. FlammarionHenri Floury hardcover
1969Best.-Nr. 89111Éxito 1969. hardcover. Aceptable. Barcelona 1969. Éxito. Grandes Novelas de la Literatura Universal nº24. Guaflex con dorados. 518 pp. 20x14. Sello anterior propietario. Falta en cubierta delantera. Éxito hardcover
1992Best.-Nr. 34826Translated and edited with a preface by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly 1992. unbound. Bueno. Translated and edited with a preface by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly. London 1900. Chatto and Windus. 412 pp. 19 x 13. Tela. En inglés. Translated and edited with a preface by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly unknown
1900Best.-Nr. 79245La España Moderna 1900. hardcover. Bueno. Madrid s/f. 1900. La España Moderna. Cartoné lomo piel. Dos tomos en un volumen. 297303 pp. 17x11. La España Moderna hardcover
1921Best.-Nr. 65387Eugéne Fasquelle Éditeur 1921. hardcover. Aceptable. París 1921. Eugéne Fasquelle Éditeur. Bibliothèque Charpentier. 2 volúmenes. 302296 pp. 19x12. Cartoné lomo piel. Cubiertas algo deslucidas. Cantos y lomo algo rozados. Texto en francés. Eugéne Fasquelle, Éditeur hardcover
1892Best.-Nr. 84801Paris: Charpentier 1892. Fine. Charpentier Paris 1892 12.50 x 19 cm relié First edition. Half red morocco binding spine with five raised bands date gilt at foot restoration to head of one joint marbled paper boards endpapers and pastedowns of combed paper bookplate mounted at head of one pastedown top edge gilt contemporary binding. Occasional light foxing. A handsomely bound copy. Autograph inscription signed by Emile Zola to Léopold Kahn who was Calmann-Lévy's principal collaborator. Charpentier hardcover
1893Best.-Nr. 86093Paris 1893. Fine. An appointment with Gilles de La Tourette Paris 15 octobre 1893 13.50 x 20.50 cm une page 1/4 sur un bifeuillet Autograph letter dated and signed by Emile Zola addressed to his friend the physician Maurice de Fleury dated in his hand October 15 1893. 1 page 1/4 19 lines in black ink on a double sheet. Horinzontal and vertical folds due to mailing. Stain on verso not affecting the text. A most unusual invitation from the master of Naturalism who wishes to organize a luncheon with two eminent specialists in nervous diseases: ""Vous êtes bien aimable de m'inviter à déjeuner. Mais cela va vous faire perdre du temps et à moi aussi . pourquoi ne prendriez-vous pas un rendez-vous pour deux heures et demie par exemple avec M. Gille de la Tourette soit jeudi soit vendredi. Nous irions chez lui simplement ."" ""You are very kind to invite me to lunch. But this will make you lose time and me as well . why wouldn't you make an appointment for two-thirty for example with M. Gille de la Tourette either Thursday or Friday. We would go to his place simply ."" Zola relied on the expertise and scientific knowledge of Maurice de Fleury a student of Charcot to nourish his writing work on the Rougon-Macquart. De Fleury particularly shared publications from his library relating to heredity a subject at the heart of Zola's great social series of novels - most particularly the generational transmission of nervous diseases fits of violence and alcoholism. Maurice de Fleury is also famous for having made ten years after this letter a medico-psychological study of Zola himself through the prism of his working habits: ""De dix heures à midi Zola rédige encore - moins facilement et moins bien que pendant l'heure initiale - et c'est fini pour toute la journée il ne sera plus bon qu'à écrire des lettres. C'est là la puissance du plus puissant cerveau dans le domaine littéraire à la fin du siècle. Avec ce tout petit traintrain modeste trois heures par jour en deux séances cet homme dont l'attention est modique . trouve moyen de nous donner tous les dix mois un de ces livres où ne manquent ni la solidité de la charpente . ni rien de ce qui constitue la force créatrice le génie pour dire le mot"" ""From ten o'clock to noon Zola still writes - less easily and less well than during the initial hour - and it's finished for the whole day he will only be good for writing letters. This is the power of the most powerful brain in the literary domain at the end of the century. With this very modest little routine three hours a day in two sessions this man whose attention is modest . manages to give us every ten months one of those books which lack neither the solidity of the framework . nor anything that constitutes creative force genius to say the word"". ""Maurice de Fleury maintained close relations with Émile Zola and Joris-Karl Huysmans with whom he corresponded in the years 1880-1890. Fervent admirer of the author of the Rougon-Macquart Fleury advised Zola for ""Le Docteur Pascal"" 1893 and confided his admiration in an article in Le Figaro in 1896. Very 'fashionable' among the 'intellectuals' according to Victor Segalen the young physician also appears in the list of symbolist authors - alongside Paul Adam Henri de Régnier and Gustave Kahn - in an essay by André Barre in 1911"" Lola Kheyar Stibler Autograph letter dated and signed by Emile Zola addressed to his friend the physician Maurice de Fleury dated in his hand October 15 1893. 1 page 1/4 19 lines in black ink on a double sheet. Transverse folds inherent to mailing. unknown
1891Best.-Nr. 86092Paris 1891. Fine. Paris 22 octobre 1891 13.30 x 20.50 cm une page sur un bifeuillet Autograph letter dated and signed by Emile Zola addressed to his friend the physician Maurice de Fleury dated in his hand October 22 1891. 16 lines in black ink on one page. ""Mon cher de Fleury je crois bien que j'ai trouvé quelque chose pour le supplément du Figaro. Venez donc causer entre cinq et dix heures . Si vous étiez au Théâtre libre samedi soir je songe que nous pourrions en causer dans un entr'acte ce qui vous éviterait de vous déranger ."" ""My dear de Fleury I do believe I have found something for the Figaro supplement. Do come to chat between five and ten o'clock . If you were at the Théâtre Libre Saturday evening I think we could discuss it during an intermission which would save you the trouble of making a special trip ."". Fleury indeed held the medical column at Le Figaro - it is perhaps following this letter and their ""conversations"" that Fleury writes these lines in the supplement of October 31 1891: ""toute l'école naturaliste ayant fait de la médecine les médecins logiquement ont fait de la littérature"" ""the entire naturalist school having practiced medicine doctors logically have practiced literature"". Zola relied on the expertise and scientific knowledge of Maurice de Fleury a student of Charcot to nourish his writing work on the Rougon-Macquart. De Fleury particularly shared publications from his library relating to heredity a subject at the heart of Zola's great social fresco - most particularly the generational transmission of nervous diseases fits of violence and alcoholism. Maurice de Fleury is also famous for having made ten years after this letter a medico-psychological study of Zola himself through the prism of his working habits: ""De dix heures à midi Zola rédige encore - moins facilement et moins bien que pendant l'heure initiale - et c'est fini pour toute la journée il ne sera plus bon qu'à écrire des lettres. C'est là la puissance du plus puissant cerveau dans le domaine littéraire à la fin du siècle. Avec ce tout petit traintrain modeste trois heures par jour en deux séances cet homme dont l'attention est modique . trouve moyen de nous donner tous les dix mois un de ces livres où ne manquent ni la solidité de la charpente . ni rien de ce qui constitue la force créatrice le génie pour dire le mot"" ""From ten o'clock to noon Zola still writes - less easily and less well than during the initial hour - and it's finished for the whole day he will only be good for writing letters. This is the power of the most powerful brain in the literary domain at the end of the century. With this very modest little routine three hours a day in two sessions this man whose attention is modest . manages to give us every ten months one of those books which lack neither the solidity of the framework . nor anything that constitutes creative force genius to say the word"". ""Maurice de Fleury entretient des relations étroites avec Émile Zola et Joris-Karl Huysmans avec lesquels il correspond dans les années 1880-1890. Fervent admirateur de l'auteur des Rougon-Macquart Fleury conseille Zola pour Le Docteur Pascal 1893 et confie son admiration dans un article du Figaro en 1896. Très « à la mode » parmi les « intellectuels » selon le mot de Victor Segalen le jeune médecin figure également dans la liste des auteurs symbolistes - aux côtés de Paul Adam Henri de Régnier et Gustave Kahn - dans un essai d'André Barre en 1911"" ""Maurice de Fleury maintains close relations with Émile Zola and Joris-Karl Huysmans with whom he corresponds in the years 1880-1890. Fervent admirer of the author of the Rougon-Macquart Fleury advises Zola for Le Docteur Pascal 1893 and confides his admiration in an article in Le Figaro in 1896. Very 'fashionable' among the 'intellectuals' according to Victor Segalen the young physician also appears in the list of symbolist authors - unknown
1875Best.-Nr. 83515Paris: Charpentier & Cie 1875. Fine. Charpentier & Cie Paris 1875 11 x 17.50 cm relié First edition of which no copies were printed on deluxe paper. Half red shagreen binding smooth spine decorated with triple gilt fillets gilt roll at foot marbled paper boards marbled paper endpapers and pastedowns rubbed corners contemporary binding. Some light foxing. A fine and very rare copy. Charpentier & Cie hardcover
1882Best.-Nr. 83518Paris: Charpentier & Cie 1882. Fine. Charpentier & Cie Paris 1882 11 x 17.50 cm broché First edition one of 250 numbered copies on Holland paper the only deluxe copies after a few rare copies on China paper. First cover skillfully restored printed library stamp with numbering on the half-title page. Copy as issued. Charpentier & Cie unknown
1890Best.-Nr. 659AG1890. um Um 1890. Photographie Portrait. Format: 125 x 85 cm. aufgezogen auf Karton 233 x 148 cm. Mit kleiner Fehlstelle. unknown
1890Best.-Nr. 84423Paris 1890. Fine. Paris 20 Février 1890 13.50 x 20.50 cm une page Autograph letter dated and signed by Emile Zola 12 lines in black ink addressed to librettist Louis Gallet concerning the operatic adaptation by Alfred Bruneau of the novel ""Le rêve"". Folds inherent to postal dispatch. Emile Zola was to meet jointly with Alfred Bruneau who had adapted the novel ""Le rêve"" for the opera and Louis Gallet the librettist of this adaptation. ""Je vous attends demain matin. pour causer des trois derniers tableaux. J'écris également à Bruneau pour lui donner rendez-vous"" ""I await you tomorrow morning. to discuss the last three tableaux. I am also writing to Bruneau to arrange a meeting with him"" and shows himself very satisfied with this prospect: ""Tout va bien."" ""All goes well."" unknown
1928Best.-Nr. 849P36London: T. Werner Laurie LTD 1928. Vellum. Near Fine/Very Good Indeed. 9" by 6.5". Toulouse Lautrec. A lovely limited edition of one of Emile Zola's best known works looking at alcoholism. Signed by the translator Arthur Symons. A limited edition limited to one-thousand copies numbered and signed this copy numbered six-hundred and forty-seven.Signed by the translator Arthur Symons to the edition page. In the original publisher's unclipped dustwrapper. 'l'Assommoir' is one of Zola's novels in his Rougon-Macquart series. This novel is a study of alcoholism and poverty in the working class life in Paris. Emile Zola was an influential writer who is known for leading the literary school of naturalism. His novels show the prosperity and poverty in France during the nineteenth century. Translated from French by Arthur Symons. Symons was a poet editor and critic. His other works include 'A Book of Parodies' 'Tristan and Iseult: A Play in Four Acts' 'Love's Cruelty' 'Figures of Several Centuries' 'The Cafe Royal and Other Essays' and more. With a frontispiece after 'The Drinking Place' by Toulouse Lautrec. Additional spine label bound in to the rear. In the original publisher's quarter paper vellum binding with cloth to the boards in the original unclipped dustwrapper. Externally smart. Spine and joints are a little discoloured as is usual with paper vellum. A few spots to the spine label. Minor bumping to the head and tail of the spine and to the extremities. Prior owner's ink inscription to the recto of the front free endpaper and to the recto of the rear free endpaper. Dust wrapper is smart with minor edge wear. Spine is a little age-toned. A few minor marks to the wraps including a larger mark to the tail of the spine. Internally firmly bound. Pages are bright and clean. Near Fine T. Werner Laurie LTD hardcover
1884Best.-Nr. 1533Light brown cloth with paper label which is chipped and scratched on spine. Boards pushed in at bottom corner. Rubbing to boards. Some creasing to spine. Front hinge cracked. Frontispiece detached and laid in. Translated from the 97th French edition. Illustrated with sixteen page engravings from designs by Bellenger Clairin Amdre Gill Leloir Rose and Vierge. Pages browned. Some brown spots to front illustrations. Previous owner's name label affixed to front pastedown. Decorative endpapers green floral pattern. Half title page has a tear and hole near top and hole near bottom. 16 pages of ads dated July 1884 at rear. Vizetelly & Co. hardcover
1900Best.-Nr. 80343Paris: Imprimerie Lenepveu 1900. Fine. Imprimerie Lenepveu Paris s. d. mai 1900 49.80 x 65.20 cm une affiche Musée des horreurs Original colour lithographed poster n° 26 exceptionnel Un bal à l'Elysée Imprimerie Lenepveu Paris May 1900 498 x 652 cm one poster Original colour lithographed poster depicting Émile Loubet as a bear holding a tambourine marked Panama Émile Zola as a pig Dreyfus as a hydra Joseph Reinach as a monkey the rabbi Kadoc Kahn as a donkey and Georges Picquart as a dromedary. This imposing poster featuring several people already caricatured in the previous issues is a direct reference to the Panama Scandal. This large-scale corruption affair which saw the resignation of Émile Loubet then Minister of Finance is re-referred to here because of the Judaism of some of is protagonists. It is Drumont through his magazine La Libre Parole who revealed the Panama Scandal denouncing the alleged alliance between the secular Republic and the Jewish high bank and thus contributing to the strengthening of the stereotype of the Jew eager for money: The deputy Joseph Reinach cousin and son-in-law of the baron Jacques de Reinach compromised in the scandal focuses the hatred of the polemicist. A republican close to the business world a free thinker Reinach is undoubtedly with Alphonse de Rothschild the man most attacked by the anti-Semites of the time. His wealth the vast networks of influence available to him his early involvement with Gambetta the memory of his campaigns against Boulangism and his equivocal role in the Panama affair make him the man to slaughter in order to return France to the French. Grégoire Kauffmann Rothschild & Cie. La bourgeoisie juive vue par Édouard Drumont in Archives Juives 2009 As for Émile Zola his novel L'Argent published in 1891 denounces the misappropriation of this financial scandal but his support for Alfred Dreyfus earned him his place in this nightmarish animal circle. Circulated between October 1899 and December 1900 in a France set ablaze by the Dreyfus Affair these immense colour portraits are the work of Victor Lenepveu who announced the publication of 150 and then 200 drawings before finally producing only around fifty. Despite the 1881 law on the freedom of press allowing the dissemination of a politically subversive image the publication of this nightmarish pantheon was interrupted by order of the Ministry of the Interior. The fragility of the paper and the imposing size of these very violent posters as well as their almost immediate seizure by the police contributed to the disappearance of these caricatures which strongly left a mark on public opinion. These horreurs were widely promoted by anti-Semitic newspapers that announced a fantasised print of 300000 copies thus insinuating the success of anti-Semitic ideas in the population. On 1st October 1899 L'Intransigeant announced the publication of the Musée des horreurs in its columns: Un dessinateur de beaucoup d'esprit au coup de crayon d'un comique intense M. V. Lenepveu a eu l'heureuse idée d'inaugurer une série de portraits des vendus les plus célèbres de la tourbe dreyfusarde. Le titre de cette série « Musée des Horreurs » est suffisamment suggestif et indique bien ce qu'il promet. . C'est la maison Hayard qui mettra en vente à partir d'aujourd'hui le numéro 1 de cette désopilante série. An artist of great spirit with an intense comical pencil stroke M. V. Lenepveu had the happy idea of inaugurating a series of portraits of the most famous sellouts of the Dreyfusard rabble. The title of this series Musée des Horreurs is sufficiently suggestive and is a good indicator of what it promises. . It is Maison Hayard that will put up for sale from today issue number 1 of this hilarious series. First a peddler then a bookseller-publisher Napoléon Hayard known as Léon Hayard specialised in the marketing of anti-Dreyfusard and anti-Semitic ephemera and advertisem Imprimerie Lenepveu unknown
1899Best.-Nr. 80330Paris: Imprimerie Lenepveu 1899. Fine. Imprimerie Lenepveu Paris s. d. novembre 1899 49.80 x 65.20 cm une affiche Musée des horreurs Original colour lithographed poster n° 4 Le Roi des Porcs Imprimerie Lenepveu Paris November 1898 498 x 652 cm one poster Original colour lithographed poster depicting Émile Zola in the shape of a pig sitting on a tub containing his fictional works and smearing international poop on the map of France. Transverse folds some tiny tears two small holes above Zola's head without affecting the image. The representation of Émile Zola as a pig does not date back to Lenepveu as Guillaume Doizy highlights in his article dedicated to pig caricatures Le porc dans la caricature politique 1870-1914: une polysémie contradictoire in Sociétés & Représentations n°27 2009: For the end of the 19th century we also think of the many caricatures of which Zola was the victim and which associate excrement symbols of naturalism with pigs. Dozens of images could be mentioned. In the 1880s Sapeck imagined the naturalist naked a vine leaf hiding his genitals a veiled reference to the supposed pornography of his writings sitting astride a pig feeding on his excrement a long-lasting symbol called to stigmatise the new literary school. In a caricature dated 1898 Alfred Le Petit shows a Zola-pig defecating on the tricolore flag. Barely a month after the publication of his famous J'accuse the writer defending the Dreyfusard cause is accused of defiling France and especially its Army by defending the traitor Dreyfus and Prussia considered the eternal enemy. The pig is dirty but above all it dirties defiles by the effect of its harmful will. The same year Caran d'Ache portrayed the weapons of the Dreyfusard press as a big pig sprawled in muck and covered with mud. . In his series Le Musée des horreurs the very right-handed Lenepveu violently attacks Zola. The writer is depicted as a piglet sitting on a box of waste containing his own works the fruit of his defecations prominently including La Terre and Nana. He soils a map of France with his international poop contained in a chamber pot that he spreads with a small brush. The artist is of course aiming at the Dreyfus defender through his famous J'accuse and Jewish cosmopolitanism smearing France with his support for treason. The soiling-pig association seems obvious and primordial. As for Napoleon III the pig's dirt reinforced here by the visible excrement stigmatises the target's political choices. Lenepveu defines Zola's ideas as works of unworthiness intestinal and dripping products. Although this is not the first porcine representation of Émile Zola the one that features prominently in Lenepveu's Musée is undeniably by its realism the most violent. Circulated between October 1899 and December 1900 in a France set ablaze by the Dreyfus Affair these immense colour portraits are the work of Victor Lenepveu who announced the publication of 150 and then 200 drawings before finally producing only around fifty. Despite the 1881 law on the freedom of press allowing the dissemination of a politically subversive image the publication of this nightmarish pantheon was interrupted by order of the Ministry of the Interior. The fragility of the paper and the imposing size of these very violent posters as well as their almost immediate seizure by the police contributed to the disappearance of these caricatures which strongly left a mark on public opinion. These horreurs were widely promoted by anti-Semitic newspapers that announced a fantasised print of 300000 copies thus insinuating the success of anti-Semitic ideas in the population. On 1st October 1899 L'Intransigeant announced the publication of the Musée des horreurs in its columns: Un dessinateur de beaucoup d'esprit au coup de crayon d'un comique intense M. V. Lenepveu a eu l'heureuse idée d'inaugurer une série de portraits des vendus les plus célèbres de la tourbe Imprimerie Lenepveu unknown
1885Best.-Nr. 82388Paris: Charpentier 1885. Fine. Charpentier Paris 1885 11.50 x 18.50 cm relié Charpentier Paris 1885 115x185cm bound. First edition. One of 150 numbered copies on hollande the only deluxe issue after 10 on papier japon. Half red morocco binding gilt date on spine marbled paper covers and endpapers. Original wrappers including the spine preserved. Set in an early 20th century binding signed by Alfred Farez. Our copy includes a two-page autograph letter dated and signed by Émile Zola to Octave Mirbeau. The author thanks him for the benevolent article he recently wrote about Germinal while defending himself from being considered as the leader of Naturalism: But why do you say that I lead naturalism I don't lead anything at all. I work in my own corner letting the world go where it pleases. A beautiful and rare copy perfectly established with a superb autograph letter signed about Germinal and Émile Zola's position within the École Naturaliste. Charpentier unknown
1877Best.-Nr. 79046L'Estaque - Marseille Marseille 1877. Fine. L'Estaque - Marseille Marseille 22 septembre 1877 13.30 x 20.80 cm 3 pages 1/2 sur un double feuillet Autograph letter signed by Emile Zola addressed to Louis-Edmond Duranty written in black ink on a double leaf. Some deletions and corrections; folds inherent to postal transmission. This letter has been transcribed in the complete correspondence of Emile Zola published by the CNRS and the Presses of the University of Montreal. Long letter evoking the heat wave at L'Estaque Une page d'amour and Edouard Manet. ""Il y a quatre mois que nous sommes ici et je vous avais promis de vous écrire. Mais j'ai tant travaillé et j'ai eu si chaud que vous m'excuserez de mon apparente paresse. Imaginez-vous que jusqu'au 15 août la température a été très agréable ; il faisait beaucoup moins chaud qu'à Paris et nous respirions chaque soir une brise de mer délicieuse. Puis voilà que brusquement lorsque je nous croyais hors de toutes mauvaises plaisanteries de la chaleur le thermomètre est monté à 40 degrés et s'y est maintenu nuit et jour. Nous avons ainsi passé deux semaines intolérables. Aujourd'hui la fraîcheur est revenue et nous allons rester jusqu'aux premiers jours de novembre pour jouir des charmes d'un bel automne."" ""We have been here for four months and I had promised to write to you. But I have worked so much and have been so hot that you will excuse my apparent laziness. Imagine that until August 15th the temperature was very pleasant; it was much less hot than in Paris and we breathed each evening a delicious sea breeze. Then suddenly when I thought we were safe from all the nasty tricks of the heat the thermometer rose to 40 degrees and stayed there night and day. We thus spent two unbearable weeks. Today the coolness has returned and we will stay until the first days of November to enjoy the charms of a beautiful autumn."" In this summer of 1877 Zola left the tumultuous capital for a five-month stay at L'Estaque ""banlieue de Marseille"" ""suburb of Marseille"" in the company of his wife Alexandrine and his mother Emilie Aubert. This long southern interlude reminded him of his youth in Aix: ""Je suis d'ailleurs enchanté de mon été. Les pays est splendide et me rappelle toute ma jeunesse."" ""I am moreover delighted with my summer. The country is splendid and reminds me of all my youth."" ""Pour finir avec moi j'ajouterai que j'ai travaillé vigoureusement à mon roman sans pourtant l'avancer autant que je l'aurais voulu. Ce roman doit paraître dans le Bien Public à partir du 14 novembre. J'en serai quitte pour donner encore un vigoureux coup de collier à Paris."" ""To finish with myself I will add that I have worked vigorously on my novel without however advancing it as much as I would have liked. This novel must appear in the Bien Public starting November 14th. I will have to give another vigorous push in Paris."" The new novel in question here is Une page d'amour whose plot and style contrast completely with the previous volume of the Rougon-Macquart: ""Je ne sais vraiment pas ce que vaut mon travail. J'ai voulu donner une note absolument opposée à celle de L'Assommoir ce qui me déroute parfois et me fait trouver mon roman bien gris. Mais je vais tout de même bravement mon chemin. Il faudra voir."" ""I really don't know what my work is worth. I wanted to give a note absolutely opposite to that of L'Assommoir which sometimes disconcerts me and makes me find my novel quite gray. But I am nonetheless bravely going my way. We will have to see."" But this ""page of love"" conceals another and during this stay in the Marseilles furnace Emile Zola was already thinking about the following volume: ""What is simmering in his southern pot is nothing less than a new bomb. Not Une page d'amour: 'it is a work too gentle to excite the public.' But Nana is already announced: 'I dream here of an extraordinary Nana. You will see that.' letter to Marguerite Charpentier of August 21 1877"" Henri Mitterrand Zola Even t unknown
1882Best.-Nr. 79108Médan 1882. Fine. Médan 23 juin 1882 13.40 x 21.60 cm 1 page 1/2 sur un double feuillet - enveloppe jointe Autograph letter signed by Emile Zola - apparently unpublished - addressed to Léon Carbonnaux written in black ink on a double sheet. Folds inherent to mailing. Envelope included. Important testimony to the colossal documentation work and the capital role of Emile Zola's informants in depicting his immense natural and social fresco. This letter was sent to Léon Carbonnaux department head at Bon Marché who transmitted precious information to Emile Zola for the creation of the eleventh volume of the Rougon-Macquart series: Au Bonheur des Dames. Only two letters from Léon Carbonnaux to Emile Zola are known: they can be consulted in the digitization of the preparatory file for Bonheur des Dames made available online by the Bibliothèque nationale de France. However we know thanks to this same file which contains a long section entitled ""Notes Carbonnaux"" that this department head at Bon Marché provided a significant amount of information to Zola particularly about employee customs and their remuneration. The two men undoubtedly met when Emile Zola eager for information about the functioning of department stores conducted field research in February and March 1882. This response would therefore be the very first that the writer addressed to the department head in reply to his letter of June 19 1882. Far from imagining the keen success that this new novel would achieve Zola even seems to take it lightly: ""Je désire simplement toucher au sujet dans mon livre pour le besoin du petit drame commercial qui me sert de fable. Vos notes sont excellentes. . Enfin me voilà au travail. Le sujet est à la fois bien vaste - et bien ingrat pour un roman. On devra me tolérer un peu de fiction car il faut bien que je passionne la matière. Mais je tâche de m'en tenir le plus strictement possible à mes notes."" ""I simply wish to touch on the subject in my book for the needs of the little commercial drama that serves as my fable. Your notes are excellent. . Finally here I am at work. The subject is both very vast - and very thankless for a novel. One will have to tolerate a bit of fiction from me for I must make the material passionate. But I try to stick as strictly as possible to my notes."" It must be said that Carbonnaux takes his role as informant very much to heart and having no doubt about the book's success he writes: ""Dans le bâtiment chez nous d'ailleurs partout on attend votre livre. Les lecteurs ne vous manqueront pas. Soyez-en sûr. Vous n'en êtes plus à compter les succès celui-là s'annonce comme devant dépasser les autres."" letter of June 19 1882 For another work on the same subject has just appeared: ""J'ai lu le volume de Pierre Giffard. Il me paraît comme vous injuste et même faux dans plusieurs parties. C'est bâclé. Il aurait fallu pour un pareil ouvrage de documents purs une entière exactitude. Moi qui écris une uvre d'imagination je ne me permettrai pas de tels écarts."" ""I have read Pierre Giffard's volume. It seems to me like you unjust and even false in several parts. It is hastily done. For such a work of pure documents complete accuracy would have been necessary. I who write a work of imagination would not allow myself such deviations.""It was Carbonnaux who had pointed out the work to Zola: ""Pierre Giffard du Figaro vient de faire paraître chez Havard un vol de 300 pages intitulé « Les Grands bazars de Paris ». . On sait que le Figaro est inféodé au Louvre magasin concurrent au Bon Marché & on peut assurer que ce livre a été commandé et bâclé dès que votre intention de traiter le même sujet a été connue. . Il fallait déguiser un peu la réclame pour le Louvre."" letter of June 19 1882 We can clearly see here how much department stores fascinate and we understand the immense success that this novel by Zola describing their advent and supremacy would achieve. unknown
1888Best.-Nr. 79098Paris 1888. Fine. Paris 11 février 1888 13.20 x 20.50 cm 2 pages sur un double feuillet Autograph letter signed by Emile Zola addressed to Henry Fouquier written in black ink on a bifolium. Usual folds from mailing. This letter was transcribed in the complete correspondence of Emile Zola published by the CNRS and the Presses de l'Université de Montréal. A fine letter evoking La Terre and Tolstoy's The Power of Darkness. Henry Fouquier 1838-1900 was a literary critic and columnist for numerous newspapers. A close friend of Guy de Maupassant he supported Emile Zolas candidacy for the Académie française. This letter was written to him the day after the performance of Tolstoy's The Power of Darkness at the Théâtre-Libre. We have not found evidence of an article in which the journalist explicitly drew a parallel between the Russian drama and Zolas La Terre but Zola here addresses his thanks: « Merci mon cher Fouquier de ce que vous voulez bien dire de « la Terre » si attaquée. J'en suis touché vivement et croyez à toute ma gratitude. » It must be said that the fifteenth volume of the Rougon-Macquart cycle was harshly received unleashing passions from the moment of its serial publication in Gil Blas. On 18 August 1887 even before the conclusion of the novel was revealed to the public Le Figaro published the Manifeste des Cinq written by Paul Bonnetain J.-H. Rosny Lucien Descaves Paul Margueritte and Gustave Guiches. These young authors issued a severe verdict: « La Terre a paru. La déception a été profonde et douloureuse. Non seulement l'observation est superficielle les trucs démodés la narration commune et dépourvue de caractéristiques mais la note ordurière est exacerbée encore descendue à des saletés si basses que par instants on se croirait devant un recueil de scatologie : le Maître est descendu au fond de l'immondice. . Nous répudions ces bonshommes de rhétorique zoliste ces silhouettes énormes surhumaines et biscornues dénuées de complication jetées brutalement en masses lourdes dans des milieux aperçus au hasard des portières d'express. De cette dernière uvre du grand cerveau qui lança L'Assommoir sur le monde de cette Terre bâtarde nous nous éloignons résolument mais non sans tristesse. Il nous poigne de repousser l'homme que nous avons trop fervemment aimé. » Zola who had been developing the idea of a peasant novel for a decade was deeply affected. Though he never responded publicly to these accusations his correspondence is strewn with clarifications about the work whose sheer brutality alone seemed to occupy readers minds: « Mais vous ajoutez que notre thèse à Tolstoï et à moi est la même et peut se résumer en ceci : le travail de la terre est corrupteur. Tolstoï il me semble protesterait bien haut et quant à moi je vous affirme que je n'ai jamais voulu prouver une telle chose radicalement fausse à mon avis. Ce que je pense c'est que la petite propriété telle qu'elle existe chez nous c'est que la suite de faits sociaux qui ont abouti à notre forme sociale nous ont donné notre paysan d'aujourd'hui avec ses qualités et ses vices. Notre paysan est le prisonnier de sa terre et non l'homme libre qu'il devrait être. Comment voulez-vous qu'il n'y étouffe pas dans son ignorance et sa passion unique Labourer est très sain mais à la condition qu'on sera le maître de son champ au lieu d'en être le forçat. Je me suis exténué à faire sortir cette vérité de mon livre si l'on ne m'a pas compris la faute en est sans doute à moi. » A remarkable letter from the master of Naturalism shedding new light on one of the most brutal volumes of the Rougon-Macquart series. unknown
