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Emil Zola The Work [1st edition, 1886].

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Emil Zola
Work

Warsaw 1886 first edition
Publishers Weekly Review

(2)640s.
o. pre-war half leather with marbled paper, gilt titling on spine, bindings
Rubbing of binding, small loss of title page, stains

For. ca: 18x13 cm

"The main character, Claudius Lantier, is an avant-garde painter who, unlike the state-promoted academics, preaches the necessity of painting real objects and people, preferably in the open air. These views become the cause of his constant failures, despite his undoubted talent. Together with his friends - the literary man Sandoz and the architect Dubuche - Claudius establishes a circle of modern artists who aim to change the prevailing rules of art.

Lantier's next painting, Plein Air, causes a scandal because it depicts a naked woman in the foreground. Although exhibited only at the Salon of the Rejected, it is the most commented on painting of the exhibition, but the criticism against it is unequivocally negative. Claudius moves to the countryside with his former model, Christine Hallegrain, where they spend three years raising their son Jack and devoting themselves to working on more paintings. However, they too are unsuccessful, leading to growing depression in the artist. Christine persuades Lantier to return to Paris, where he begins to paint another huge painting - a view of the Seine and people gathered on its banks. Although he manages to prepare a sketch, working on the painting only leads him to frustration; he is not satisfied with the subsequent results of the painting, destroys successive versions of the canvas, and descends into obsession and misery. His mental state worsens further when he sees successive former friends betray their youthful ideals and adapt to life in bourgeois society. Only Sandoz remains true to his old principles, working on a series of naturalistic novels.

A few years old Jacek dies of malnutrition, Claudius paints a painting The Dead Child, which is finally accepted at the Salon, but ridiculed by the elegant public. Despite Christine's pleas, the painter then returns to the view of the Seine, but after months of trying to create the masterpiece of his dreams, he understands his failure and commits suicide."