Lettre autographe signée adressée à Gabrielle Réval

Autograph letter signed by Jules Renard addressed to Gabrielle Réval. One and a half pages written in black ink on letterhead paper from "Gloriette," the writer's residence in Nièvre. Transverse fold lines inherent to mailing.
Fine letter to this fellow writer alluding to Poil de Carotte: "Je suis au moins aussi content que vous. Certes, je n'avais pas oublié le manuscrit où Poil de Carotte était si bien compris, - et aimé - j'avais oublié la signature." ["I am at least as pleased as you are. Certainly, I had not forgotten the manuscript where Poil de Carotte was so well understood, - and loved - I had forgotten the signature."] He mentions Gabrielle Réval's book: "Et tant mieux ; car j'ai lu les Sèvriennes et non le livre d'une amie de Poil de Carotte. L'auteur seul a plu, le lecteur seul a été touché. Il y a de belles réussites, vous le voyez, madame." ["So much the better; for I read the Sèvriennes and not the book of a friend of Poil de Carotte. The author alone pleased, the reader alone was moved. There are beautiful successes, you see, madam."] Jules Renard already enjoyed considerable success at this time: "Il me répugnerait de jour au vieux maître, sachez pourtant que j'ai déjà reçu bien des livres, écrit bien des lettres (en quelle proportion par politesse ? je ne sais plus) mais aucune ne fut plus spontanée que celle dont vous me remerciez aimablement." ["It would repel me to play the old master, know however that I have already received many books, written many letters (in what proportion out of politeness? I no longer know) but none was more spontaneous than the one for which you thank me kindly."] The highly laudatory letter alluded to here is preserved at the Jean Jaurès Media Library in Nevers and was written by Renard a few days before ours: "Ce n'est pas l'auteur des Sévriennes que je remercie, c'est vous. C'est grâce à vous que j'ai lu, par cette froide fin de mai, entre la première rose de mon jardin et les dernières flammes de ma cheminée, un beau Livre." ["It is not the author of the Sévriennes that I thank, it is you. It is thanks to you that I read, during this cold end of May, between the first rose of my garden and the last flames of my fireplace, a beautiful Book."]
Gabrielle Réval was one of the co-founders of the Prix de la Vie heureuse which would later become the Prix Femina.