Léon BLOY (1846-1917). L.A.S., Fontenay aux Roses Wednesday [October 1885], to Villiers de l'Isle-Adam 2 pages in-8. Superb letter from Bloy to Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, about Le Désespéré and Axël. He asks his friend to take half a dozen copies of the issue of La Vie moderne in which his article on Marie-Antoinette appeared. Then he talks about Le Désespéré: "I'm in the process of putting together a cruel novel in which my contemporary squalids will appear. It will be very beautiful. Providence, directly interested in the spread of my venom, has granted me the means to work in safety, so I'm staying in Fontenay"... On the back, a long comment from Axël: "What a nasty habit, always confining yourself to the Shakespearean form. You're descriptive enough to do without it. Your dialogue is superb, Jansenian as hell. Then you italicise the vile word "stage", forcing us to assume that there are vile mutts behind the scenes. It's simply odious. You spit on exegesis and I feel targeted by a few sentences. Life is too short and I'm in too much of a hurry with my book to pick up on this childishness. I will do better. I'll make a SIMPLE SOUL, a prodigious novelty! And he finishes: "Une Âme Simple! Ah, Villiers, if you only knew what it is! Attached are autograph notes taken by Bloy in Axël (1 page and a half, large in-8, 25 x 10 cm); Bloy has copied a dozen quotations: "You remained what you were, walled up in your narrow complacency where only the instinct of an animality resistant to all divine selection is refined"... Etc.