Description:

Proust Marcel



Marcel Proust ALS Ca. Same Year he Started In Search of Lost Time, Mentioning his Translation of Ruskin's Bible of Amiens

 

4pp ALS inscribed overall and signed by French novelist Marcel Proust (1871-1922) as "Marcel Proust" at the bottom of the last page. The letter is undated but evidence suggests it dates from 1909, the same year that Proust began his 7-part novel In Search of Lost Time. Plain cream bifold stationery. Inscribed along a vertical orientation on the first and second pages, and along a horizontal orientation on the third and fourth pages. Overall light toning and expected paper folds. A few pencil marks and tiny chips at creases mentioned just for accuracy. Each page measures 4.375" x 6.625".

 

Translated in full. Paragraph breaks have been added for increased legibility.

 

"Dear friend

 

I am so exhausted these days that it has produced in me this bizarre phenomenon that you will perhaps understand (because you are very intelligent!) as I distractedly open my correspondence, sometimes, if a letter rolls off my bed without my responding to it, I can no longer recall if I had dreamed of such a letter, or if it came in reality. For, several days later, I see a letter in my mind's eye:

 

Baroness d'Eichtel will…

 

Did I dream it? Did I receive this letter? I am leaning toward it being a dream, but I cannot be sure, and since I recall that you had spoken to me of this lady, I am now writing to, quite stupidly, ask you: Did I dream? If I dreamt, in God's name, do not think that this is a trick in order to be invited to this lady's morning or evening receptions.

 

I rise from bed about once every 2 months and would not be able to visit her. But if by chance this was real, tell me what I should do. Postcards (where?) --. A letter? --. Bible of Amiens? --. Flowers? (I imagine not!). -- Anything but going there, as I am ill --. And the Figaro? And Caillavet? --. And Cabourg? (I'm quite afraid that I will not be able to go.) It would do me well. But to leave! What would become of the little Berthier ladies?

 

Your Marcel Proust."

 

Comical and self-deprecating, , Proust's letter illustrates both his competency with the French language, and a boundless imagination. Both of these skills--writing ability and storytelling--would serve him well during the next decade spent writing In Search of Lost Time. The letter was addressed to Max Daireaux (1884-1954), a young writer whom Proust had befriended in Normandy in 1908.

 

This novel series, published between 1913-1927, is considered Proust's masterpiece. The book paints a vivid picture of social life during the French Second Empire. Among its 2,000 characters are Madame Verdurin, who Proust modeled after his friend's mother Leontine Lippmann (1844-1910). Madame Arman de Caillavet, as she was widely known, hosted a literary salon and was the lover of Anatole France. Was the Baroness d'Eichtel someone like her? Does this reference to a fine lady anticipate the intense interest in elite French society that Proust would soon translate into his novel?

 

Madame Arman de Caillavet may have been the "Caillavet" referred to in Proust's letter. It also could have referred to her son--and Proust's close friend--French playwright Gaston Arman de Caillavet (1869-1915). Literary scholars believe Gaston was the basis for Proust's In Search of Lost Time character Robert de Saint-Loup.

 

One of Proust's gift ideas for the Baroness d'Eichtel was a copy of his own translation work, the Bible of Amiens. This art history volume was originally published by British art critic John Ruskin in 1884 as the first of a series of books on the history of Christianity and ecclesiastical architecture in Europe. Proust translated Ruskin's work into French and added an extensive preface and footnotes, publishing it in 1904.

 

The letter underscores one of the most significant aspects of Proust's personal life: his chronic invalidism. Proust suffered from asthma his entire life and would die prematurely from pneumonia and pulmonary abscesses at age 51.

 



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