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Zola, Emile : Les Rougon-Macquart: histoire naturelle et sociale d'une famille sous le Second Empire; La Curee

Emile Testard, Paris, France, 1894

Limited Edition. No. 288 of 691 copies. Text in French. Original wrappers bound in beautiful dark blue 1/4 leather binding with multicolored, marbled paper-covered boards. Gilt lettering on spine. Marbled endpapers. Five raised bands. Marbling on boards and endpapers appears in a swirled pattern and includes the colors of blue, yellow, black, white, and red. Green ribbon bookmark included. 8 1/4" x 11 1/2." 357 pages, complete. Many black-and-white illustrations by Georges Jeanniot, complete. Pages and covers are very clean and intact. Binding is tight. Pages have some foxing. Covers have some rubbing to front and back and light to moderate wear to corners and edges. A Very Good copy. This is La Curee (English: The Kill), the second book in Emile Zola's twenty-volume series, Les Rougon-Macquart. The series is about two seemingly opposite families, the aristocratic Rougons and the working-class Macquarts. The stories take place during the Second French Empire. Zola wanted Les Rougon-Macquart to be an exploration of how people are shaped by genetics and their environment and how social ills, such as violence and alcoholism, can be passed down for years to come. Zola believed family genetics and heredity affected family members for generations. La Curee follows the stories of three Rougon family members; Aristide Rougon, the wealthy son of a peasant, Pierre Rougon, and bourgeois woman, Felicite; Renee Rougon, Aristide's second wife after his first wife became terminally ill; and Maxime Rougon, the son from Aristide's first marriage. La Curee explores how the bourgeoisie are not necessarily as respectable as they are outwardly appear in society. Central to Zola's Les Rougon-Macquart series is revealing how despite their seemingly oppositional differences, the two families have more in common than first appears. Emile Zola (1840-1902) was a French novelist, journalist, and playwright. He was a leading pioneer of the naturalist literary movement. Zola also figured greatly in the infamous Dreyfus affair in which a French-Jewish artillery officer, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, was wrongfully accused of giving French military secrets to the German Embassy and sentenced to life imprisonment due to the anti-Semitic views of French army officers. Notably, Zola authored "J'Accuse...!" (1898), an expose article that revealed how top-level French army officers had wrongfully charged Dreyfus for his supposed crimes due to anti-Semitism and that they had committed obstruction of justice. Zola himself was convicted for his article and for supporting Dreyfus but managed to flee. "J'Accuse...!" is also noted for being one of the earliest examples in France of how intellectuals, Zola in this case, had a newfound influence in shaping public opinion. Eventually, an amnesty bill was passed that freed Dreyfus and all individuals connected to the case (including both those for and against Dreyfus), which included Zola. Sadly, Zola succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning in 1902. Although there are differing accounts, it is widely believed that a chimney-sweep had assassinated Zola by blocking his chimney due to Zola's defense of Dreyfus. Pierre-Georges Jeanniot (1848-1934) was a Swiss-French Impressionist painter, illustrator, engraver, and designer. His artworks often depict modern life in Paris. Front colophon: "691 Exemplaires Numerotes a la Presse, Savoir: No. 1. - 1 exemplaire unique, sur velin de cuve des Papeleries du Marais, impose dans le format soleil, et contenant la series complete des dessins originaux. Nos. 2 a 11. -- 10 exemplaires sur papier des Manufactures imperiales du Japon. Nos. 12 a 141. -- 130 exemplaires sur papier de Chine extra-fort. Nos 142 a 691. -- 550 exemplaires sur papier velin. No. 288.". Illustr.: Jeanniot, Georges. Book. Book Condition: Very Good. Binding: Hardcover

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