98 - [LITERATURE] - Émile Zola

[LITERATURE] - Émile Zola The Wish of a Dead Woman Paris, Achille Faure, 1866 [1867 on the cover] In-12°. Period percaline cloth binding in Bradel style. Author, title, place, and date of publication gilt on the spine. Gilt headband. Cover intact. Untrimmed. Some scuffing. A rare first edition of this early novel, published well before the monumental Rougon-Macquart cycle. The book was published in volume form at the end of 1866 (following its serialization in “L’Événement” in September), but the original cover bears the date 1867 to anticipate the following calendar year—a detail well known to bibliophiles. This sentimental work, still steeped in Romanticism, was a resounding public and critical failure upon its release. For more than twenty years, Zola refused to allow it to be republished before agreeing to a thoroughly rewritten version published by Charpentier in 1889. The plot recounts the fate of Daniel Raimbault, who sacrifices his life and his loves to protect Jeanne, the daughter of a dying countess, remaining faithful to the vow she made on her deathbed. The text of the novel is followed by *Esquisses parisiennes*, a collection of four short stories by the author (*La Vierge au cirage*, *Les Vieilles aux yeux bleus*, *Les Repoussoirs*, and *L’amour sous les toits*). It was not printed on high-quality paper. References: Carteret, II, 490; Clouzot, p. 280. Provenance: ex-libris ELJI—from the Errera family library