ZOLA Émile [Paris, 1840 - id., 1902], French writer. Set of 7 autograph letters signed. L'Estaque, September 22, 1877; 4 pages in-8°. [To Edmond Duranty]. "It has been four months since we have been here, and I had promised to write to you. But I have worked so hard and been so hot that you will excuse me for my apparent laziness. [I am delighted with my summer. The country is splendid and reminds me of my youth. My wife is better. [] 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. The novel is to be published in the Bien Public from November 15. [] I wanted to give an absolutely opposite note to that of L'Assommoir, which sometimes confuses me and makes me find my novel quite gray. [] I have to compliment you on a short story of yours that I read in Le Temps: La Folie Morand. [] Your son-in-law and your father-in-law are two superb figures, and all that is very clear, very lively, absolutely remarkable. [] I have only heard from Manet indirectly, through Duret. Is he working, is he in a good state of mind? I was told that the collapse of Hoschédé had thrown misery on the Impressionist camp. I had foreseen this plunge since last year. Médan, June 23, 1882; 2 pages in-8°, envelope enclosed. to Léon Carbonnaux, department manager at Le Bon Marché. "You are very kind and your notes on manufacturing are sufficient. I simply wish to touch on the subject in my book, for the purposes of the little commercial drama that serves as my fable. Your notes are excellent. I have read Pierre Giffard's volume. It seems to me, as it does to you, unfair and even false in several parts. It is sloppy. It would have been necessary, for such a work of pure documents, to be completely accurate. I, who write a work of imagination, will not allow myself such deviations. At last, here I am at work. The subject is at the same time very vast and very ungrateful for a novel. I will have to be tolerated a little bit of fiction, because I have to position the material". Médan, November 10, 1882; 2 pages in-8°, envelope enclosed. to Léon Carbonnaux. "You were kind enough to give me some details about the inventory. You told me that they chose the first Sunday in August, that they closed the doors and that all the employees went into it. We clear out all the boxes, right? The goods are thrown on the counter or on the floor, and the inventory is only completed when there is absolutely nothing left. But now I need details about the entries. First of all, do the first and the second have special roles in the inventory? What is their share of the work? And then what do the clerks who write do? [I have used the inventory as the framework for one of my chapters. Besides, I only need the work in the confectionary department and in the silk department. It is useless to inform me about the other departments. Médan, November 28, 1882; 1 page in-8°, envelope enclosed. to Léon Carbonnaux. "Excuse me if I insist, if I am becoming quite unwelcome. You would be very kind to send me as soon as possible the information I asked you for on the inventory. I am waiting to get down to work. Just give me the broad outlines, that will be enough. It is unfortunately very urgent. Médan, December 1, 1882; 2 pages in-8°, envelope enclosed. to Léon Carbonnaux "Thank you first of all for your information about the inventory. But your letter surprises and grieves me a little. How could you let yourself be taken in by the imbecile joke of Panurge? Didn't you notice that the whole issue is a "farce"? Not one of the articles is authentic, they are pastiches, and even very badly done. The extract given is not mine, it is full of inaccuracies as you have noticed, not to mention that it is inept from a literary point of view. [Now I must confess to you the enormous difficulty I sometimes have in being accurate. A commercial treaty is one thing, and a novel is another. So it may happen that some passages of my work shock you, because I have been obliged to cheat sometimes. Thus your details on the inventory will bother me a lot: they do not fit into my framework. Bénodet, 10 September 1883; 2 pages in-8°. to a lady. "Mr. Grimm, from Buda-Perth, is a simple thief who has my novels translated as they are published in French newspapers, without any authorization. [But it seems that we have no treaty with Hungary. I am waiting for the signing of a treaty, which is said to be soon. I would ask you to give me the quickest possible answer concerning the translation of La Joie de vivre []. I repeat that I will only accept a fixed sum paid in advance. It is simpler and without surprises