Autograph letter signed by Emile Zola addressed to Louis-Edmond Duranty, written in black ink on a double leaf. Some deletions and corrections; folds inherent to postal transmission.
This letter has been transcribed in the complete correspondence of Emile Zola published by the CNRS and the Presses of the University of Montreal.
Long letter evoking the heat wave at L'Estaque, Une page d'amour and Edouard Manet.
"Il y a quatre mois que nous sommes ici, et je vous avais promis de vous écrire. Mais j'ai tant travaillé et j'ai eu si chaud, que vous m'excuserez de mon apparente paresse. Imaginez-vous que jusqu'au 15 août, la température a été très agréable ; il faisait beaucoup moins chaud qu'à Paris et nous respirions chaque soir une brise de mer délicieuse. Puis, voilà que, brusquement, lorsque je nous croyais hors de toutes mauvaises plaisanteries de la chaleur, le thermomètre est monté à 40 degrés et s'y est maintenu nuit et jour. Nous avons ainsi passé deux semaines intolérables. Aujourd'hui, la fraîcheur est revenue, et nous allons rester jusqu'aux premiers jours de novembre pour jouir des charmes d'un bel automne." ["We have been here for four months, and I had promised to write to you. But I have worked so much and have been so hot, that you will excuse my apparent laziness. Imagine that until August 15th, the temperature was very pleasant; it was much less hot than in Paris and we breathed each evening a delicious sea breeze. Then, suddenly, when I thought we were safe from all the nasty tricks of the heat, the thermometer rose to 40 degrees and stayed there night and day. We thus spent two unbearable weeks. Today, the coolness has returned, and we will stay until the first days of November to enjoy the charms of a beautiful autumn."]
In this summer of 1877, Zola left the tumultuous capital for a five-month stay at L'Estaque ("banlieue de Marseille" ["suburb of Marseille"]) in the company of his wife Alexandrine and his mother, Emilie Aubert. This long southern interlude reminded him of his youth in Aix: "Je suis d'ailleurs enchanté de mon été. Les pays est splendide et me rappelle toute ma jeunesse." ["I am moreover delighted with my summer. The country is splendid and reminds me of all my youth."]
"Pour finir avec moi, j'ajouterai que j'ai travaillé vigoureusement à mon roman, sans pourtant l'avancer autant que je l'aurais voulu. Ce roman doit paraître dans le Bien Public à partir du 14 novembre. J'en serai quitte pour donner encore un vigoureux coup de collier à Paris." ["To finish with myself, I will add that I have worked vigorously on my novel, without however advancing it as much as I would have liked. This novel must appear in the Bien Public starting November 14th. I will have to give another vigorous push in Paris."] The new novel in question here is Une page d'amour whose plot and style contrast completely with the previous volume of the Rougon-Macquart: "Je ne sais vraiment pas ce que vaut mon travail. J'ai voulu donner une note absolument opposée à celle de L'Assommoir, ce qui me déroute parfois et me fait trouver mon roman bien gris. Mais je vais tout de même bravement mon chemin. Il faudra voir." ["I really don't know what my work is worth. I wanted to give a note absolutely opposite to that of L'Assommoir, which sometimes disconcerts me and makes me find my novel quite gray. But I am nonetheless bravely going my way. We will have to see."] But this "page of love" conceals another and, during this stay in the Marseilles furnace, Emile Zola was already thinking about the following volume: "What is simmering in his southern pot is nothing less than a new bomb. Not Une page d'amour: 'it is a work too gentle to excite the public.' But Nana is already announced: 'I dream here of an extraordinary Nana. You will see that.' [letter to Marguerite Charpentier of August 21, 1877]" (Henri Mitterrand, Zola) Even though Une page d'amour did not achieve great success with the public, the critics were relatively enthusiastic. Thus Flaubert wrote to Zola: "Monday evening, I had finished the volume. It does not dishonor the collection. Have no fear. And I do not understand your doubts about its value. But I would not recommend reading it to my daughter if I were a mother!!! - For, despite my great age, this novel has troubled me. And excited me. One desires Hélène, in an immoderate way. And one understands your doctor very well." (around April 25, 1878)
Distance from the capital did not prevent Emile Zola from thinking of his friends who remained in Paris: "Je n'ai eu des nouvelles de Manet qu'indirectement, par Duret. Travaille-t-il, est-il dans un bon état d'esprit ? - On m'a dit que la déconfiture d'Hoschedé avait jeté la misère dans le camp impressionniste. Je prévoyais ce plongeon depuis l'année dernière." ["I have had news of Manet only indirectly, through Duret. Is he working, is he in a good state of mind? - I was told that Hoschedé's bankruptcy had thrown misery into the impressionist camp. I had foreseen this plunge since last year."] "Duret and Duranty send [to Zola] some echoes of the painters' lives. Duret spoke to him about Manet in detail, evoking the portraits he has begun, 'in a bold note and in movement,' but also of his persistent lack of success. [...] Zola learns on the other hand through Marguerite Charpentier, "la déconfiture" ["the bankruptcy"] of Ernest Hoschedé, sumptuous textile and clothing merchant, great art lover, and collector of the 'new painting,' who has once again thrown misery and anxiety among the impressionist painters. 'He owes two million, wrote Marguerite Charpentier; they sold everything at his place, even the dresses of his unfortunate wife who knew nothing, and she fled with her five children and gave birth on the train.' Not only do the impressionists lose a client and generous host, who received them royally in his château of Montgeron, but they easily foresee that the forced sale of his collections, at the Hôtel Drouot, will make their prices fall in humiliating proportions." (Henri Mitterrand, Ibid.) Ernest Hoschedé and this bankruptcy prefigure the character of Naudet in L'Œuvre that Emile Zola would publish in 1896.
Long and interesting letter evoking Zola's passions: Provence, writing and painting.
