Lettre autographe datée et signée adressée à son ami le médecin Maurice de Fleury

Autograph letter dated and signed by Emile Zola, addressed to his friend the physician Maurice de Fleury, dated in his hand October 15, 1893. 1 page 1/4, 19 lines in black ink on a double sheet. Transverse folds inherent to mailing. Stain on verso, not affecting the text.Stain on verso, not affecting the text.

A most unusual invitation from the master of Naturalism, who wishes to organize a luncheon with these two eminent specialists in nervous diseases: "Vous êtes bien aimable de m'inviter à déjeuner. Mais cela va vous faire perdre du temps et à moi aussi [...] pourquoi ne prendriez-vous pas un rendez-vous pour deux heures et demie par exemple, avec M. Gille de la Tourette, soit jeudi, soit vendredi. Nous irions chez lui, simplement [...]" ("You are very kind to invite me to lunch. But this will make you lose time and me as well [...] why wouldn't you make an appointment for two-thirty for example, with M. Gille de la Tourette, either Thursday or Friday. We would go to his place, simply [...]")
Zola relied on the expertise and scientific knowledge of Maurice de Fleury, a student of Charcot, to nourish his writing work on the Rougon-Macquart. De Fleury particularly shared publications from his library relating to heredity, a subject at the heart of Zola's great social fresco - most particularly the generational transmission of nervous diseases, fits of violence and alcoholism.
Maurice de Fleury is also famous for having made, ten years after this letter, a medico-psychological study of Zola himself, through the prism of his working habits: "De dix heures à midi, Zola rédige encore - moins facilement et moins bien que pendant l'heure initiale - et c'est fini pour toute la journée, il ne sera plus bon qu'à écrire des lettres. C'est là la puissance du plus puissant cerveau dans le domaine littéraire, à la fin du siècle. Avec ce tout petit traintrain modeste, trois heures par jour en deux séances, cet homme dont l'attention est modique [...] trouve moyen de nous donner, tous les dix mois, un de ces livres où ne manquent ni la solidité de la charpente [...] ni rien de ce qui constitue la force créatrice, le génie, pour dire le mot" ("From ten o'clock to noon, Zola still writes - less easily and less well than during the initial hour - and it's finished for the whole day, he will only be good for writing letters. This is the power of the most powerful brain in the literary domain, at the end of the century. With this very modest little routine, three hours a day in two sessions, this man whose attention is modest [...] manages to give us, every ten months, one of those books which lack neither the solidity of the framework [...] nor anything that constitutes creative force, genius, to say the word").

"[Maurice de Fleury] entretient des relations étroites avec Émile Zola et Joris-Karl Huysmans, avec lesquels il correspond dans les années 1880-1890. Fervent admirateur de l'auteur des Rougon-Macquart, Fleury conseille Zola pour Le Docteur Pascal (1893) et confie son admiration dans un article du Figaro, en 1896. Très « à la mode » parmi les « intellectuels » (selon le mot de Victor Segalen), le jeune médecin figure également dans la liste des auteurs symbolistes - aux côtés de Paul Adam, Henri de Régnier et Gustave Kahn - dans un essai d'André Barre, en 1911" ("[Maurice de Fleury] maintains close relations with Émile Zola and Joris-Karl Huysmans, with whom he corresponds in the years 1880-1890. Fervent admirer of the author of the Rougon-Macquart, Fleury advises Zola for Le Docteur Pascal (1893) and confides his admiration in an article in Le Figaro, in 1896. Very 'fashionable' among the 'intellectuals' (according to Victor Segalen), the young physician also appears in the list of symbolist authors - alongside Paul Adam, Henri de Régnier and Gustave Kahn - in an essay by André Barre, in 1911") (Lola Kheyar Stibler)

Autograph letter dated and signed by Emile Zola, addressed to his friend the physician Maurice de Fleury, dated in his hand October 15, 1893. 1 page 1/4, 19 lines in black ink on a double sheet. Transverse folds inherent to mailing.