GONCOURT (Edmond). - Lot 72

GONCOURT (Edmond). Les Frères Zemganno. Paris: G. Charpentier, 1879. - In-18, 176 x 112 : XII, 375 pp. Dark blue half-chagrin, spine ribbed, speckled edges (period binding). First edition, dedicated to Julia Daudet, of the first work written by Edmond de Goncourt without the collaboration of his brother Jules, who died in 1870. PRECIOUS EXAMPLE FROM JULIA DAUDET, DEDICATEE OF THE WORK, including her stamp on the first white endpaper and this autograph dispatch signed by the author on the false title: En attendant un // autre exemplaire et // avec indulgence pour les // which are numerous // Edmond de Goncourt Julia Daudet had never known Jules de Goncourt, but revealed that this title was a novel about the author's love for his brother: "a monument to brotherly love and the story of the Goncourt collaboration." We know from the author's correspondence that Julia Daudet received this copy as soon as it was published, and probably even before its official publication on April 30, 1879. In fact, in a letter dated May 1 1879, Julia Daudet wrote to Edmond de Goncourt to tell him how much she appreciated the work, and to thank him for dedicating it to her: "What a beautiful and deeply moving book; what we knew of it had made it known to us, but nothing beats the sequence of these chapters that only you know how to make, and which resemble the broad stanzas of a poem. [...] When I read my name at the beginning of a work so intimately felt, written by you with such élan, I felt not only a small happiness of pride, but also a real joy of friendship. First of all, the story of your fraternal collaboration is all there, and touches me in more ways than one; then, forgive me, these two brothers at this age difference, these Zemganno now in full possession of their glory, it seems to me that I find them a little at home, in my big and in my little" (Goncourt-Daudet, Correspondance, 1996, p. 68). Julia didn't stop there: on June 3, 1879, she wrote an article about the book for the Journal Officiel, under the pseudonym Karl Steen. Goncourt thanked her in a letter dated June 11: "Your article, dear Madam, is a charming, poetic and moving analysis of my Zemganno, and avenges me a little of the series of scourgings that have fallen on their backs" (Ibid, p. 69). Leaves slightly browned, otherwise a very well preserved copy. Provenance: Julia Daudet, with ex-libris stamp and dispatch from the author.