Signed autograph letter "Your Gve Flaubert" to Émile Zola [Paris, December 17, 1874], 1 p. Summons to the summit for the next "group of five" dinner. "My dear friend, Tourgueneff, de Goncourt & Daudet will be at my house on Sunday afternoon to discuss with you the upcoming day of our festival. Therefore, I am summoning you - and I am yours, Gve Flaubert. The first dinner of this "exclusive" group was the Flaubert dinner, later called the dinner of the Booed Authors or the dinner of the Five, which took place on April 14, 1874.
The Five - Goncourt, Flaubert, Zola, Tourgueniev, and Daudet - first met in various restaurants, and later at one of their homes. Simultaneously a gathering of good food, a reunion of friends, and a literary platform, this group of five came together around meals that were moments of life, laughter, and excess. Flaubert's death in May 1880 shattered the sociability of the group, which had difficulty reconstituting itself. 382 [December 1874] Copy (20th century), René Descharmes, B.Émile Zola Collection, piece n°32, Then Alexandrine Zola, by descent, Then the Leblond-Zola family, by descent.