Emile ZOLA

Lettre autographe datée et signée, en exil pendant l'Affaire Dreyfus : "je crois que c'est la fin du monde"

[Weybridge] 19 août 1898, 13,5x20,5cm, quatre pages sur un bifeuillet.

“My dear friend,
Thank you for your kind letter [...] In the midst of universal cowardice, you wouldn't believe how moved I am to feel a few faithful people around me.
My existence here has become possible, since I've been able to get back to work. Work has always comforted me, saved me. But my poor hands are still trembling with a shiver that cannot end. You wouldn't believe the outrage I feel at the echoes from France that reach me. In the evening, when daylight falls, I think it's the end of the world.
You think I should go back and make myself a prisoner, without returning to Versailles. That would be too good, to have the peace of prison, and I don't think it's possible. I didn't set out to go back like that; our attitude would be neither logical nor beautiful. Rather, I think I'm in indefinite exile, unless I run the abominable risk of a new trial. Besides, we won't be able to make up our minds until October. And by then, who knows? Although I'm counting on a miracle, in which I have little faith.
So let us be brave, my friend, and let our work be done! If I can keep working, things won't be too bad yet.
[...]
I shake your hand, my good friend, the faithful and rare friend of bad days“.