Beschreibung:

Zola's Nana Inscribed by Zola to Guy de Maupassant ZOLA, Émile (1840-1902). Nana. Les Rougon-Macquart IX. Paris: Charpentier, 1880. First edition, a superb presentation copy inscribed and signed by Zola for his friend and fellow writer Guy de Maupassant. Inscribed on the half-title: "a Guy de Maupassant / son ami / Zola." Zola and Maupassant (1850-1893) are widely celebrated as figureheads of the Naturalist school of French literature. Meeting at the home of Gustave Flaubert, the two men developed a firm friendship and respect for each other’s work, leading to collaborations including the short story collection Les Soirées de Médan, published in the same year as the present work. Following Maupassant’s death, Zola said of his friend’s great public appeal: “If he was understood and loved from the first it was because the French soul found in him the gifts and qualities that have created its finest achievements.” The ninth instalment of Zola’s 20-volume Les Rougon-Macquart series, Nana tells the story of a Parisian prostitute in the Second French Empire. The most beguiling of all Zola’s characters, over the course of the novel “destroys all the men—aristocrats, high government officials, army officers, bankers, journalists—who pursue her, leaving a trail of bankruptcy, humiliation, and death. Symbol of profligacy and excess, she feeds insatiably on her lovers while remaining serenely indifferent to them” (Nelson). Carteret Romantique II, 482. Octavo (183 x 115mm). Half-title with advertisements on the verso (scattered mild foxing). Contemporary muslin, gilt-lettered cloth spine label (upper hinge cracked, light sunning to spine and wear to spine ends); custom red quarter morocco clamshell box.