ZOLA (Emile). The Three Cities: Lourdes. Paris : G. Charpentier, E. Fasquelle, 1894. - Rome. Paris: G. Charpentier, E. Fasquelle, 1896. - Paris. Paris : Eugène Fasquelle, 1898. - 3 works in three volumes in-18, 182 x 118 : (2 ff.), 598 pp. with printed cover ; (2 ff.), 751 pp. with printed cover ; (2 ff.), 608 pp. with printed cover. Dark blue jansenist morocco, spine ribbed, gilt fillets and gilt floral design and mosaic of red morocco at the corners inside, double endpapers, gilt edges on witnesses, cover and spine kept (Durvand). First edition of the three novels forming the novelistic cycle Les Trois villes. Numbered copies on Hollande paper, 340 for Lourdes and 300 for the two other titles. Beautiful copies in uniform bindings by Durvand, enriched with a frontispiece of an ORIGINAL DRAWING IN COLOR by the artist Albert MORAND, each accompanied by a study of the same subject, monogrammed by the artist. There is also an autograph letter signed by Emile Zola added in the volume Lourdes. One and a half page in-8, it is addressed to the actor, director and theater manager Paul Porel and dated January 13, 1886. It is about William Busnach who worked on the theatrical adaptation of Zola's main novels: "I have been working all day, without leaving my house; and Busnach, who comes to see me, tells me about all the disaster that followed our approach last night. You have been so charming to us, you had lent us your boarder in such a surge of sympathy, that I want to tell you that we keep you a deep gratitude... " Rubbing to the nerves and hinges, especially to the one of the first cover of the Rome binding .