émile Zola - Signed Autograph Card With Envelope - *soirées De Médan* - Henry Céard - 1893

Émile Zola fondly recalls the bygone days of the Médan gatherings.

"My old friend, your article moved me deeply. Thank you for bringing back memories of those wonderful days of camaraderie and trust."

Émile ZOLA (1840–1902), autographed calling card addressed to Henry Céard (1851–1924)

June 9, 1893 – Médan. Size: 6 x 10 cm – Includes the original autographed envelope and stamp.

Magnetic Plexiglas display frame (included): 21 x 15 cm

A superb and moving letter-card in which Émile Zola responds with nostalgia and kindness to a draft article (sent to Zola on June 5, 1893) from his former companion at the Soirées de Médan, Henry Céard. The article was prompted by a major literary event: the publication of the twentieth and final volume of the Rougon-Macquart series, *LeDocteur Pascal*. Zola had just completed his life’s work, which had occupied him for more than twenty years. In light of this colossal achievement, Henry Céard offers a retrospective article recounting the beginnings of their friendship, the genesis of the Naturalist movement, and the formative years of the “Médan Group.” (Émile Zola, Guy de Maupassant, J.-K. Huysmans, Léon Hennique, and Paul Alexis, Henry Céard).

If this article “deeply moved” Zola, it was because it rekindled memories of a happy but irrevocably bygone era.  By 1893, the bonds of friendship among the Naturalist writers had grown strained. The famous Manifesto of the Five (1887) had created rifts, and each writer went his own literary way. Finally, it was also a time of intense emotion because Guy de Maupassant, after a suicide attempt in January 1892, had descended into madness. In June 1893, he was on his deathbed at Dr. Blanche’s clinic (he would die there a month later, in early July 1893).

After 1893, the friendship between Henry Céard and Zola gradually deteriorated before breaking down completely during the Dreyfus Affair.

A beautiful document and a beautiful signature.

My old friend, your article moved me deeply.

Thank you for recalling those wonderful days of brotherhood and trust.

With affection.

Émile Zola

[Envelope:]

Mr. Henry Céard

10 rue du Trésor

Paris