ZOLA (Emile).

Lot 86
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Estimation :
500 - 600 EUR
ZOLA (Emile).
Messidor. Lyrical drama in four acts and five tableaux. Paris, Librairie Charpentier et Fasquelle, 1897. In-12, orange half-maroquin with long stripes, smooth spine with long gilt title, gilt head, untrimmed, cover (Devauchelle). First edition of this lyrical drama first performed in February 1897 at the Paris Opera, with music by Alfred Bruneau (1857-1934), a composer who became the official musician of the naturalist movement. A copy of the current edition, bearing on the false title a signed letter from Zola to the journalist Fernand Xau: to Fernand Xau his devoted and cordial Émile Zola. Fernand Xau (1852-1899) became famous for his interview with Zola, in 1880 at his home in Médan. During the Dreyfus Affair, he criticized the writer's stance, which was contrary to his own vigorously anti-Dreyfus convictions: I have a strong friendship for the man; but [...] I wish to say, as director of the Journal, that the article he has just published is a bad action from the patriotic point of view and that the Journal, faithful to its line of conduct, owes it to itself and to its readers to protest strongly against unjustifiable accusations. It is truly regrettable and painful to see a man of Zola's conscience, a writer of his value, get lost in a campaign in which the man and the writer can only compromise the legitimate consideration they enjoyed and which can only benefit the worst adversaries of the army and the most detestable enemies of France (Le Journal, 14 January 1898).
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