Joséphin PELADAN – Autograph letter signed to Léon Cladel.

Josephine Peladan (1858.1918).

Autographed letter signed to Léon Cladel.

Two octavo pages on letterhead paper of La Revue des Livres et des Estampes.

Slnd (Paris, circa 1885)

"The gentleman Baudelaire would have told you better, but no other way."

A beautiful letter from Peladan evoking Taine, Barbey d'Aurevilly, Rops and Charles Baudelaire.

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“Sir, *The Origins of Contemporary France *, especially Volume IV, will explain to you, if you read them, why I could never insult your talent with the term ‘citizen.’ The spontaneity of your vote deeply moved me, and I am truly inexcusable for expressing my gratitude so late. Moreover, all the justice I have received has been bestowed upon me by your people; mine… I criticize them because they are bourgeois in spirit and liberal in tendency. I conveyed your handshake to Monsieur d’Aurevilly : he warmly returns it. Rops, 21 rue de Grammont , fifth floor. I salute you, Monsieur Cladel, but your flag is now nothing but an imperceptible rag , and historical criticism will not leave a single valiant thread. And the one you have labeled DUX, the gentleman Baudelaire would have said better, but no better.” I hope that chance will have the wisdom to bring us together, and I ask you to believe in my highest esteem in the literary hierarchy. Josephine Peladan.

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Received by Charles Baudelaire on the occasion of the publication of Les Martyrs ridicules , Léon Cladel became acquainted with the poet. The young writer drew from his visits to the "master" the substance of a short story entitled Dux, written in 1868.

The Revue des Livres et des Estampes , founded in October 1884 by Péladan, did not survive the publication of its fourth issue in January 1885.