The manuscript of the play “Germinal” by Zola bought 138,600 euros by the BNF – Le Monde

The National Library of France (BNF) bought at auction, Wednesday, December 8, the manuscript of the play Germinal by Emile Zola, adaptation of the famous novel, announced the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, on Twitter.

This document – sold 138,600 euros, specifies the Sotheby’s house – “Completes the exceptional collection of the National Library of France devoted to the author and thus enters the national collections”, rejoiced the minister.

The highest bid, for this lot estimated at between 100,000 and 150,000 euros by Sotheby’s, was carried by the urban community of La Porte du Hainaut, in the North, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) the latter. This was without counting on the right of preemption which gives priority to the State, for the same amount.

” From now on, Germinal belongs to all “, underlined the president of this intercommunality, Aymeric Robin.

The first version of the censored play

The manuscript consists of 454 pages written between 1885 and 1887 by the hand of the famous naturalist novelist, to adapt his novel published in 1885.

“It joins the manuscript of the novel and more broadly all of the writer’s manuscripts, kept at the BNF, in order to shed new light on one of the most emblematic works of French literature”, welcomed the president of the BNF, Laurence Engel. M^me Engel hinted that she would take the initiative to show this manuscript: “I hope that the BNF will soon be able to present this work with strong symbolic significance in the region. “

Huge success, this account of a coal miners’ revolt in northern France in the 1860s had, according to Emile Zola, the potential for a theatrical adaptation that would reach an even wider audience. But the writer had the bad surprise to see the censors refuse the first version of his play, considered too subversive. He had to write a second, watered down, which failed.

According to Sotheby’s, the seller is a collector “European” who “Wishes to remain anonymous” and does not say “No more on the route” of “Last major manuscript of Emile Zola still in private hands”.

Communist elected officials from the North, MP Fabien Roussel and Mr. Robin, had called on the State to become a buyer so that the manuscript integrates public collections, in the same way as most of those of the author of the saga des Rougon-Macquart, a set of twenty novels.