Octave Mirbeau Signed Autograph Letter to A. Daudet, Tartarin de Tarascon, 1890

  
Octave Mirbeau - Handwritten signed letter to A. Daudet - Tartarin de Tarascon, 1890.

Letter concerning Daudet’s novel Port-Tarascon, published in 1890.

The final installment of Tartarin de Tarascon’s adventures. Mirbeau is enthusiastic about this last volume and about the character of Tartarin: “A human character who contains all our enthusiasms. He finds joy in suffering.” Tartarin’s death strikes him as a form of ennoblement and leaves behind a deep sense of pity in his memory.

“My dear master,

Thank you for sending me your Port-Tarascon. Your dedication is incomplete, for you could also have added: in tears. The laughter, so cheerful and full of grace, the charming irony, reveal true tears...

Your book is full of admirable things, my dear master, ... When you show Tartarin thinking of Napoleon, Napoleon of Themistocles, of all humanity: ... Always walking in someone else’s footsteps. What pleases me immensely in your Tartarin is that he is, above all, a human character, and not merely a southern one. He has all our enthusiasms, all our boasting, all our disappointments. And he finds joy in suffering. I regret that he is dead, but I could not have imagined an ending for him that would ennoble him more, and that would leave behind, in his memory, such great pity.

I shake your hand warmly, and I would like to know that you are happy and that your sufferings are giving you a little respite.

Do not hesitate to contact me for any question.