Signé ; Émile Zola / Envoi autographe à Charles Diguet, romancier - La Terre - 1887

Sent to Charles Diguet, novelist. Covers preserved, binding in very good condition, solid work.

The Earth is a novel by Émile Zola published in 1887, the fifteenth volume of the Rougon-Macquart series and undoubtedly one of the most provocative.

This is indeed a very dark depiction of the peasant world of the second half of the 19th century, of small landowners eager for profit, consumed by a passion for the land that can even lead to crime. The entire work is imbued with a brutality that was meant to shock readers of the time, depicting animal couplings alternating with those of humans, who themselves are marked by a great precocity and brutality that often extends to rape.

From its publication, La Terre sparked fierce controversy, notably illustrated by the Manifesto of the Five, an article published in Le Figaro by five young novelists who advised Zola to consult Dr. Charcot to treat his morbid obsessions.