Lettre autographe signée adressée à la citoyenne Fontaine

Extremely rare autograph letter signed « Restif Labretone » addressed to Citoyenne Fontaine. Three pages written in black ink on a double sheet of laid paper. Remains of a wax seal, folds inherent to mailing. 
This letter was published, with some inaccuracies, in Lettres inédites de Restif de Labretone by V. Forest and É. Grimaud, 1883.

The Fontaine couple are merchants from Grenoble, and Restif de la Bretonne began corresponding with them on March 15, 1797.
Important letter testifying to the completion of the publication of Restif's great autobiographical work: Monsieur Nicolas ou les Ressorts du Cœur Humain dévoilé. « I will have completed the Cœur humain Dévoilé within 15 days – I will prepare your package immediately, to have it ready... » The first eight volumes of this great autobiographical work, printed by Restif himself – a typesetter by trade – in his residence at 11 rue de la Bûcherie, were entrusted to the « dishonest » bookseller Nicolas Bonneville, who did not honor his debts to the writer. Besides health issues (« I exchange my illnesses, and do not cure them »), Restif also shares with his correspondent his literary setbacks: « The Author of Nature will preserve a sincere friend for me to compensate for the scoundrels of the Institute, and the perfidious Mercier ». Indeed, the previous year, the author learned with bitterness that he was not admitted to the National Institute, and Louis-Sébastien Mercier, who had praised him in his Tableau de Paris and supported his candidacy, then turned away from him. To this sum of misfortunes, financial difficulties are added. Penniless and living on meager state pensions, he maintains all his support for the Republic: « By what fatality do I never see the views of the rulers who welcome me; or how do they not see at once, that I am attached to the Revolution to the point that I still love it, even when it beats me. » Restif, profoundly anti-royalist, wrote several pamphlets to this effect and had just added to the end of Monsieur Nicolas an apology for the coup d'état of 18 Fructidor Year V. However, this date marks the end of the allowance granted to him by Lazare Carnot after his failure at the Institute: « You know the events of 18 Fructidor; I will not speak to you about them. They have given me back my life; but by afflicting both my heart and my gratitude. »
 
But Restif's great sorrow is the loss of his daughter, Filette, born from his adventure with Louise Allan, whose paternity was revealed to him only late: « I am writing to you from bed, weeping over my Filette who died 11 months and ten days ago [...] Filette was my daughter, and Louise's, whose soul and beauty she had. »
 
Autograph letters signed by Restif de La Bretonne that have survived to this day are extremely rare.