[ZOLA (Émile)] - LEBOURGEOIS (Henri). Zola's work. 16 watercolor similes by H. Lebourgeois. Paris: E. Bernard & Cie, 1898. - 2 parts in one volume in-8, 254 x 185: (1 f.), 32 plates, (1 f.). Red half-maroquin with corners, ornate ribbed spine, gilt head (Ch. Septier). First edition of this series of 32 satirical caricatures of Zola depicted in each of his works. "Henri Lebourgeois set out to re-read each of Zola's titles in the light of the Dreyfus Affair. In "Mes Haines", he plays at the massacre of representatives of the bourgeoisie, the army and the Church. In "Une page d'amour", he embraces a female allegory of Truth emerging from the well, whose profile borrows its pronounced features from the stereotypes of anti-Semitic caricature. This interpretation is often fraught with pornographic and scatological undertones, featuring the writer transvestited as a garbage collector, sewer man or garbage disposal worker, in trivial situations woven with literary quotations and political allusions. In "L'Assommoir", disguised as a Coupeau, he vomits at the foot of the Avenue de la Grande Armée. In "Le Roman expérimental", standing in front of an easel, he splashes paint onto his canvas, holding a brush and a chamber pot in place of a brush and palette" (Bertrand Tillier, Les Artistes et l'affaire Dreyfus : 1898-1908, Champ Vallon, 2009, p. 36). The last plate shows Zola in a straitjacket, accompanied to prison, with the caption: "Conclusion...And it will be justice." A fine copy bound by Charles Septier, rare in this condition. All plates have been mounted on tabs. The last leaf includes advertisements for Le Nu au Salon by Armand Silvestre and Rabelais and the work of Jules Garnier. Usual rubbing to binding. Restored tears to title leaf.