Paris, Bibliothèque-Charpentier, 1896.
8vo: (2) ff. including a half-title with a note from G. Charpentier and E. Fasquelle, 751 pp., (1) p. Full Jansenist havana morocco, spine with five raised bands, wide inner border, top edge gilt, gilt over untrimmed edges, yellow wrappers bound in. Contemporary binding by Charles Meunier.
188 x 116 mm.
EXCEPTIONAL COPY OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION OF “ROME” FROM THE SPECIAL ISSUE ON COLORED PAPER, ONE OF 5 COPIES PRINTED ON YELLOW PAPER, ISSUE UNKNOWN TO BIBLIOGRAPHERS.
Carteret, II, 492.
“Rome: COPY PRINTED ON JONQUIL-COLORED CHINA PAPER, unknown to bibliographers.
The issue recorded by bibliographers was limited to 330 copies, of which 300 on Holland paper and 30 on Japan paper. NO BIBLIOGRAPHER MENTIONS THIS COPY ON JONQUIL-COLORED CHINA PAPER.
MANUSCRIPT PRINT JUSTIFICATION SIGNED BY THE EDITORS CHARPENTIER AND FASQUELLE OPPOSITE THE TITLE PAGE.
“We certify that ‘Rome’ by Emile Zola was printed in five copies on yellow paper. June 1st, 1896. G. Charpentier and E. Fasquelle.”
“The Three Cities” is a trilogy by Emile Zola (1840-1902) comprising “Lourdes” (1894), “Rome” (1896), “Paris” (1898). The Rougon-Macquart series was not yet complete when the novelist, who made a brief visit to Lourdes in September 1891, decided to tackle the revival of faith, aiming to “establish the religious, philosophical, and social balance sheet of the century.” The crisis experienced by Abbé Pierre Froment serves as the common thread for the three works.
Pierre became a priest to obey his mother’s will following the death of his father, a famous chemist, during a laboratory experiment. But he starts to doubt. He goes to Lourdes with the annual pilgrimage to regain faith. He accompanies young Marie de Guersaint, whom he loved years earlier but who was condemned to immobility by a mysterious illness. Marie is miraculously cured. Her illness was actually due to hysteria. Pierre does not regain faith. He cannot reunite with Marie, who vowed to remain a virgin if she were cured. Therefore, he must remain a priest, but he envisions a new religion, closer to humanity, “giving a larger part to the earth, accommodating the conquered truths.” A work of pity and emotion, divided into five days, the five days that the national pilgrimage dedicates to its annual journey. “Lourdes” paints the pilgrims, their faith, the “persistent need for the supernatural in man” despite the conquests of science, the figure of Bernadette, but also the frauds in healing, the merchants of the time. It is the work of a sincere man, questioning through his character the crisis of his time.
Pierre wrote a book, La Rome nouvelle, where he defends this religion he thought of on the train returning from Lourdes to Paris, a religion that would rediscover the virtues of early Christianity. But his work is banned by the Congregation of the Index. He then goes to Rome to plead his case before the Holy Father, but he is never received, he encounters a reactionary and fearful Church, and gets lost in the labyrinths of administration and hierarchy.
Returning to Paris, he reunites with his elder brother, Guillaume, whom he had lost sight of. With his moral and material help, he abandons the priesthood, marries, has children, regains confidence in life and the future, and believes in the possibility of a new society founded on the progress of science. Meanwhile, “Paris” paints a very dark picture, showing man crushed by the workings of a huge, impersonal, unjust society, ready to explode. A dense, anguished work, it is a bold protest “against all the powers of falsehood and servitude” (Jaurès).
EXCEPTIONAL COPY OF THIS ORIGINAL EDITION BY EMILE ZOLA PRINTED ON YELLOW PAPER, FINELY BOUND BY CHARLES MEUNIER WITH THE WRAPPERS BOUND IN, IN HAVANA MOROCCO TO MATCH THE YELLOW PAPER.
