Lot Details
Lot 65
ZOLA, ÉMILE Les Trois Villes. Lourdes.
; [...Rome]; [...Paris] Paris: Bibliothèque-Charpentier, 1894-96-98. First editions, each a presentation copy from Zola to [Sir] Campbell Clarke, inscribed "á Campbell Clarke/son dévoué confrère/Emile Zola." Blue contemporary French quarter-calf with Campbell Clarke's initials at the foot of the spine, original yellow wrappers bound in. 6 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches (17.5 x 11 cm); various paginations. Light binding wear, paper rather toned. Each with the bookplate of Sir Campbell Clarke.
An important series of novels (rare with all three inscribed) by Zola. Lourdes, the first, was initially published in the journal Gil Blas. Condemned by the French Catholic right, the book was added to the Index librorum prohibitorum. For (or perhaps because of) all that, the work did very well, with over a hundred thousand copies sold in the first month after publication. Rome, the second volume, was also a success. The third volume, Paris, came out just as the Dreyfus affair was coming to a boil; indeed, Zola had to flee for England a few months after publication, after a prosecution by the Félix Faure government for libel for his J'Accuse...!"
The recipient of these copies, Sir Campbell Clarke, was a British journalist and author, well known and regarded in France, and an Officer of the French Legion of Honor. (3)
C
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