L’Assommoir

Nothing better conveys the writer’s “twenty years of work and unpopularity” than the preface to L’Assommoir itself, in which Zola describes his novel as “attacked with unprecedented brutality, denounced, charged with every crime.” He was reproached for its crude tone and the language of the working-class districts, yet, he writes, “L’Assommoir is undoubtedly the most chaste of my books. I have often had to touch on far more appalling wounds. […] No matter, no one has understood that my intention was to carry out a purely philological work, one that I believe to be of keen historical and social interest.” He concludes: “My novels should be read, understood, seen clearly as a whole, before the ready-made, grotesque and hateful judgments circulating about me and my work are pronounced.” As he warns in the preface: “I have a goal toward which I am moving.”

Huysmans also came to the novel’s defense, in a fierce essay, “Émile Zola et L’Assommoir,” which he ends thus: “I have said enough, I think, to prove to those who have read the works of this powerful artist that all the gossip spread about him is insane and stupid. The blood-drinker, the pornographer, is simply the most exquisite of men and the most benevolent of masters,” reiterating what he most admired in Zola, beyond the controversies and oppositions: his talent as a “handler of crowds […]: two of his fundamental qualities, the creation of secondary characters treated with a scope previously unknown, and the prodigious handling of crowds, have grown even further, if possible, in [L’Assommoir].”

L’Assommoir is the seventh title published in the Rougon-Macquart series, the first to abandon volume numbering. More importantly, it is the title with which the deluxe papers begin to appear. First came Hollande paper, in growing numbers, later supplemented by a China-paper issue (from Nana onward) or Japanese paper (from Au Bonheur des Dames onward), without any consistent rule. A few volumes (at least two, L’Argent and Le Docteur Pascal) also had copies on vellum. L’Assommoir was issued on a single deluxe paper — a Hollande laid paper — limited to 75 copies, making it the rarest title in the series on this paper, and one of the most sought after.

For reference — and a useful update for some:
1. La Fortune des Rougon (1871)
2. La Curée (1872)
3. Le Ventre de Paris (1873)
4. La Conquête de Plassans (1874)
5. La Faute de l’abbé Mouret (1875)
6. Son Excellence Eugène Rougon (1876): no deluxe paper, wrappers bear a volume number.
7. L’Assommoir (1877): 75 copies on Hollande.
8. Une page d’amour (1878): 100 copies on Hollande.
9. Nana (1880): 5 named copies on China paper, for Céard, Charpentier, Hennique, Huysmans, Zola; 325 on Hollande.
10. Pot-Bouille (1882): a few copies on China paper; 250 on Hollande.
11. Au Bonheur des Dames (1883): a few copies on China paper; 10 on Japanese paper; 150 on Hollande.
12. La Joie de vivre (1884): a few copies on China paper; 10 on Japanese paper; 150 on Hollande.
13. Germinal (1885): 10 copies on Japanese paper; 150 on Hollande.
14. L’Œuvre (1886): 10 copies on Japanese paper; 175 on Hollande.
15. La Terre (1887): 30 copies on Japanese paper; 275 on Hollande.
16. Le Rêve (1888): 25 copies on Japanese paper; 250 copies on Hollande.
17. La Bête humaine (1890): 30 copies on Japanese paper; 250 on Hollande.
18. L’Argent (1891): 5 copies on vellum, signed with a portrait; 30 on Japanese paper; 250 on Hollande.
19. La Débâcle (1892): a few copies on China paper; 33 on Japanese paper; 330 on Hollande.
20. Le Docteur Pascal (1893): 5 copies on vellum; 40 on Japanese paper; 340 on Hollande.

A superbly bound copy by René Aussourd, with the original wrappers preserved intact.