Description
FIRST EDITION printed in small numbers, plus 100 copies on Hollande and a few copies on Chine.
PRECIOUS AUTOGRAPHIC SENT signed by :
"To Alphonse Daudet, his friend Edmond de Goncourt".
Alphonse Daudet's ex-libris stamp on the first white endpaper.
Beautiful impression by Quantin for E. Dentu: frames on each page drawn by Pallandre and engraved by Méaulle, frontispiece drawn and engraved in etching by Lalauze, head-of-page and cul-de-lampe engraved in etching by Henriot. Complete with facsimile of Huberty's letter to Potel reproduced by Auguste Bry.
GONCOURT DAUDET A FRATERNAL FRIENDSHIP
It was during the "whistled authors' dinnersIn 1873, Gustave Flaubert organised a series of "dinner parties" - an ironic reminder of the guests' theatrical failures - at which the first naturalist masters, Goncourt and Tourgueniev, met Alphonse Daudet and Émile Zola. From 1874 onwards, Goncourt became close to the Daudets and, fascinated by their family life, he became a regular guest in their Parisian homes. In the summer, Goncourt spent long periods in their country house on the banks of the Seine, becoming for the journalists "the Daudets".the uncle from Champrosay". They became close friends, dining together twice a week and taking long walks in the forest of Senart. They also visited Les Baux, St Remy, Avignon and Arles. Goncourt, for his part, opened the doors of the big world to Daudet by recommending him to Princess Mathilde, cousin of Napoleon III, and also played the role of social mentor, informing him about the customs of the courts when writing Le Roi en Exil. Their intimacy was such that Goncourt found in Daudet his missing brother, calling him "his brother".My dear boy"In a letter dated 27 May 1887, he explained: ".Allow me to say this to my brother, whom you have replaced a little, a lot". This fraternal friendship was interrupted by the death of Goncourt, who died in Champrosay, in his friend's house, on 16 July 1896.
SUPERB PROVENANCE.