Émile ZOLA. L.A.S., Médan October 24, 1882, to a dear colleague [Léon Duplessis]; 3pages in-8 (cracks in folds repaired). Beautiful letter of literary advice and poetry. He has read his Erostrate: "I'm so busy, so weary, that reading a book is quite an affair for me. So I read you, and my regret is that you took the rhymed form, the framework of the poem. Of course, I'm not condemning poetry, as you put it. I just think that today it's overworked material that needs to be left to rest for perhaps a century, so that the exhausted earth can produce original shoots. After Musset, Hugo, Lamartine, Leconte de Lisle and so many others, imitation is fatal. Forgive me for being harsh, but you'll see that the facts will prove me right! You won't be read, your work, despite its rare merits, will go unnoticed; and that's only because the tool you use inevitably lacks the vibrancy of personality that makes for living poetry. You would have spent half the talent to write your work in prose, within the framework of the novel, that you would have had a beautiful success." He thanks Duplessis for his "literary sympathy. There are still very few people who are willing to realize that my works are poems, and that they are worthwhile above all for their psychology and composition. You must feel how touched I am by your letter, and how delighted I was to see the orchestration of my novels understood by an unknown friend. [...] I agree with you that there are no schools, only men. And allow me only one piece of advice: return to prose, make your prose personal, if you wish to write living works"...