ZOLA Émile [Paris, 1840 - id., 1902], French writer. - Lot 68

Lot 68
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Result : 4 500EUR
ZOLA Émile [Paris, 1840 - id., 1902], French writer. - Lot 68
ZOLA Émile [Paris, 1840 - id., 1902], French writer. Autograph manuscript signed, "Preface," with autograph corrections. February 20, 1889; 10 pages in-4° (20.3 x 15.3 cm), mounted on tab. Ex-libris of Edmond de Goncourt. Hardcover binding, hand-marbled, title-piece on the spine. Interesting article evoking Gustave Flaubert. "You send me the proofs of this book, and you think that it would interest your readers to know what I think of it. I don't know if I am qualified to judge these pages, so lively and so typical, detached from Parisian life. But all in all, as I have nothing but good things to say about it, I am happy to write you this letter, authorizing you to do whatever you please with it, even a preface. I remember the fury into which our dear and great Flaubert entered, when a reporter came to his house. [] One evening, I tried to explain to him that he, the author of Madame Bovary, of the masterpiece of our documentary novel, was perhaps not very logical in getting angry when he found, in journalism, the same process of investigation that he himself had used, in literature. [I have just leafed through your book, and the Paris of last year has come alive before me. It holds together, it works, it evokes life. [Yes, Paris is there, with a bit of its blood and brains. I imagine that in a thousand years, this volume will be found again: it will be the mummy stripped of its bandages and still having the light laughter of its lips.
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