PARIS. The autograph of the theatrical version of «Germinale» (original title «Germinal»), novel by the French writer Émile Zola (1840-1902), was sold in an online auction organized by the Paris branch of the English auction house Sotheby’s for 138,600 euros. The buyer remained anonymous. The manuscript of more than 454 pages, the author’s last large-scale still in private hands and known only to a small group of Zola’s scholars, presents the stage adaptation of the thirteenth book cycle of «I Rougon-Macquart »: The plot takes place in the mining area of northern France and describes the hard life of the miners of the second industrial revolution, as well as the political and trade union organization of the working class.
This is the only one of his novels of which Zola himself wrote the theatrical version. Almost all the manuscripts of “Les Rougon-Macquart” are in the collections of the National Library of France. If “Germinale” is a “proletarian” novel, the theatrical adaptation also wants to be “a drama written for the people”, in the words of the writer, who quickly clashed with censorship. Zola had initially questioned the authorship of the work, suggesting that, as with his other novels, the adaptation was by playwright William Busnach. But having rejected the play, he launched into a virulent battle with the censors to defend both the text and freedom of expression.
In October 1885 the Council of Ministers decided to ban “Germinale” due to its socialist tendencies, which were considered subversive and could undermine public order. Zola protested several times in the press and fought for three years to have his work represented. It was only at the end of December 1887 that the same Council of Ministers lifted the prohibition, after having obtained the removal of the words that could give this work a “socialist and nihilistic character”. The work was first presented in April 1888 at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. The 454 autographed pages of the manuscript, written in the spring and summer of 1885 and extensively revised and corrected, testify to Zola’s intense creative activity. They are accompanied by an autographed copy of the play, submitted to censorship in October 1885, with corrections and variations by Zola’s hand, and an autographed copy of the revised version, performed in 1888.