First edition.
Half blue morocco shagreen, smooth spine, gilt date at foot of spine, marbled paper boards, contemporary binding.
Exceptionally inscribed by Emile Zola to the playwright and opera librettist Ludovic Halévy, with the autograph signatures of Guy de Maupassant, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Léon Hennique, Paul Alexis and Henri Céard on the first flyleaf.
Provenances: from the libraries of Ludovic Halévy and Marcel Lecomte, with their bookplates on front pastedown.
Our copy also includes, on a flyleaf, an autograph note by Ludovic Halévy: "See a letter by Guy de Maupassant at the end of the volume. L.H. Inscribed by the six authors of the volume. Lud