Joséphin PELADAN - Autograph letter signed to Léon Cladel.

“The gentleman Baudelaire would have told you better but not otherwise. »

850€

Joséphin PELADAN (1858.1918).

Autograph letter signed to Léon Cladel.

Two pages in-8° on letterhead from La Revue des Livres et des Estampes. Slnd (Paris, circa 1885)

“The gentleman Baudelaire would have told you better but not otherwise. »

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

“Sir, The origins of Contemporary France by Taine, especially Volume IV, will explain to you, if you read them, why I cannot insult the talent that you are as a “citizen”. The spontaneity of your vote deeply moved me, and I am inexcusable for showing you my gratitude so late. Besides, all the justice that was done to me was done by yours; mine... I shoot them because they are bourgeois in spirit and liberal in tendency. I passed on your handshake to Mr. d'Aurevilly : he returns it warmly. Rops perche 21 rue de Grammont , on the fifth floor. I salute you, Mr. Cladel, but your flag is nothing more than an imperceptible rag , of which historical criticism will not leave a valiant thread. & the one you rubbed DUX, the gentleman Baudelaire would have told you better but not otherwise. I hope that chance will have the intelligence to bring us together, and I ask you to believe in my greatest esteem for literary hierarchy. Joséphin Peladan. »

—————————————————————–

Received by Charles Baudelaire on the occasion of the publication of Martyrs ridicules , Léon Cladel became familiar 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 the fourth issue in January 1885.