A PRIEST IN THE HOUSE; Emile Zola / Translated from the French by Brian Rhys

New York: The Citadel Press [ELEK], 1957. First American Edition. Cloth. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo, black cloth with gold lettering on spine, Introduction by Brian Rhys, archival mylar-protected pictorial dust jacket by Pauram (unclipped: Price $3.50), ix, [x] + 294 pages. Émile Zola (1840 - 1902) was a French novelist, playwright, journalist, political Liberal, and practitioner of "naturalism." His works were favored by ELEK,, a small British Leftist publishing house, who published this book in England during 1957, and several others by Zola around this time. A Priest in the House had been previously published in 1917 as The Conquest of Plassans. According to Jonathan [https://readingzola.wordpress.com/category/translators/rhys-brian/] "All you need to know [about the plot] is that Mouret has become a bit of a recluse and rumours are spreading about the town that he has been beating his wife, Marthe, and that he's mad. Mouret, meanwhile, is oblivious to these rumours." VERY SCARCE in such a complete and bright dust jacket and such Very Good cloth. Tight, clean copy with typical age-toning to pages. Jacket has a clean, bright cover; soiled back panel with a 1" clean tear mid-top. SCARCE title. Rare in this exceptional condition and with a Near Fine dust jacket.