Léon HENNIQUE. Autograph manuscript, Les hauts faits de Monsieur de Ponthau, [1876?]; 302 folio pages (32x20.5cm) written recto, in sheets (some edges a little frayed, last page missing without loss of text, paper browned on 1st leaf). Complete manuscript of this dialogue novel. The subtitle reads: "(Henrico quatro regnante)". Hennique published fragments in La République des lettres on March 20, 1876, prior to its publication in 1880 as a volume by Derveaux, illustrated with engravings by Benjamin Constant, Gervex and Ingomat: a dedication offered his painter friends "this romantic joke on Romanticism", and in a brief preface Hennique said he had "wanted to show imagination, to combat and 'joke' a school with its varnish and the blunt point of its own weapons", and "to prove that, like so many writers convinced of their impeccability, we could have made Romanticism". Flaubert greatly appreciated the book, as evidenced by his long letter of February 3, 1880: "Under the pretext of joking about Romanticism, you have made a very fine Romantic book. Yes, there's a Shakespearean drama in it, you can be sure of that. [...] I started your volume yesterday at ten o'clock in the evening and finished it at three in the morning, which proves to you that it amused me. And I didn't laugh for a minute (you missed your point). On the contrary, I admired it. When it's not beautiful, it's charming. I don't think you understand what you've done. [...] P[onthau], my good man, is a completely off-line creation!"... The manuscript, in black ink on large sheets, was used for printing; it does not include the dedication or preface; there are a number of erasures and corrections, with some passages crossed out.