LITERATURE XIXe. SECOND EMPIRE. PRINCE IMPERIAL. DUMAS FILS, - Lot 25

LITERATURE XIXe. SECOND EMPIRE. PRINCE IMPERIAL. DUMAS FILS, Alexandre (1824-1895), the famous novelist of La Dame aux Camélias. L.A.S. In-18 format. 6 pp. on 2 folded ff., brown ink on laid paper. Fine handwriting. Date probably added later in pencil (August 30, 1879). "98, Avenue de Villiers" engraved on the ff., which was his home address. Beautiful and interesting letter. A personal social letter written by Dumas to a dear friend (the name is not decipherable enough at present) following the death of the Prince Impérial, Napoleon III's only son, killed by Zulus in June of the same year. Evoking the Empress in exile in Chislehurst and her correspondence, her withdrawal from social life, her grief, the problems of money, thanking him for passing on his words and support to the grieving widow and mother. The famous author has some beautiful lyrical lines on the pain of Eugénie de Montijo's grief: "She is no longer a politician, she is only a woman, she is only a mother...".