ZOLA, Émile. Mes haines - Le Roman expérimental - Le Naturalisme au théâtre - Documents littéraires.
Paris, Charpentier, 1879-1881.

In-12 (184 x 125 mm), 4 volumes, Mes haines - (4) ff., 374 pp., (2) ff., Le Roman expérimental - (6) ff., 416 pp., (2) ff., Le Naturalisme au théâtre - (4) ff., II-408 pp., (2) ff., Documents littéraires - (5) ff., 419 pp., (3) ff.
Full calf, ribbed spine, brown morocco author's and title-piece, gilt title and author, double gilt fillet on the edges, gilt edges, interior roulette (Smeers Engel).

Rare collection of Zola's four main theoretical volumes, all in copies No. 1 on Hollande, in a homogeneous contemporary binding.

These texts form the intellectual foundation of naturalism, which Zola never ceased to defend in literary, scientific and political terms. Never before had a novelist systematised his own aesthetic with such rigour: he asserts that the novel, supported by the emerging human sciences (experimental medicine, psychology, sociology), must become a veritable laboratory of reality, dedicated to revealing the laws of human behaviour and social determinisms.

The Experimental Novel, in particular, was a seminal manifesto that, from the moment of its publication, aroused passionate support and heated controversy, both in France and abroad. These positions had a lasting impact on the literary field at the end of the nineteenth century. Naturalism in the theatre, for its part, fuelled the famous quarrel between Zola and the successful playwright of the day, Victorien Sardou, whom he criticised for treating his subjects in a boulevardière fashion. Zola said: ‘Monsieur Sardou does not have our literary esteem’.

Together, they develop the Zolian vision of the novel as a scientific experiment applied to society, contrasting ‘disinterested’ art with a committed work, oriented towards social truth.

An exceptional set, assembled in period bindings by a renowned bookbinder, in a remarkable state of preservation.