Renée et la Comédie Française: quatre lettres inédites de Zola à Emile Perrin

During the 1870s, Emile Zola strove to attain distinction as a playwright, attempting to give the lie to those who considered him incapable of producing the naturalist equivalent of Hugo's Hernani. His attempts to renovate the farce (Les Héritiers Rabourdin and Le Bouton de rose) failed; his drama Thérèse Raquin, fell short of becoming an "œuvre~type" or "pièce-mère." This study focuses on Zola's deep-seated desire to achieve recognition by having Renée, which he adapted from his novel, La Curée, accepted by the Premier Théâtre." It is based in part upon the unpublished correspondence between its administrator, Emile Perrin and Zola. It attempts to show how the social and moral climate of the period made it difficult if not impossible to have a dramatic work with incest as a principle theme staged in a French official theater. (In French) (JBS)