BAUDELAIRE Charles (1821-1867)

Lot 82
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Estimation :
5000 - 7000 EUR
BAUDELAIRE Charles (1821-1867)
L.A.S. "Charles", [Paris] Monday, October 31, 1853, to HIS MOTHER Madame AUPICK; 4 pages in-8. Beautiful letter to his mother on her translations of Edgar Poe. "I was still waiting, my dear mother, for you to write me a word, or to go to Neuilly", where Narcissus ANCELLE is said to have told him of his financial worries: "you know how much I hate any discussion". He agreed with Ancelle "that I wouldn't take anything from him by the end of February". So he needs money and he makes a list of his expenses: "1° 40 fr. for rent [...] 2° 60 fr. for clothes [...] 3° 100 fr. which allows me to stay locked up all November, if I like, and not to lose day by day all my month. Will I still need to be helped by you in December? I don't think so. [...] I intend not to. - With all this, I consider as sure that my unfortunate book [the collection of Edgar POE's translations promised to V. Lecou] would be finished in EIGHT DAYS ! - on the condition that I remain absolutely locked up. - I would still have nearly three weeks to finish the backlog of articles - Cartoons, Drama Plans &c..." He insists on the 100 francs that will allow him to stay at home, without "the necessity of running constantly to borrow money". Thus "I will perhaps be able not only to finish my book before the middle of the month, but also to reconcile fully with the bookseller, and start anew the execution of the projects that I should have completed a year ago. [...] Please note that I absolutely do not want to go out, otherwise I would never finish, - the restaurant makes me lose three or four hours a day". His concierge or a cleaning lady will go and buy his groceries. "I will therefore know once in my life the result of a month's absolute confinement". He will go that day "to the newspaper Paris to find out when I will be printed [Le Paris, run by a cousin of the Goncourt family, published translations of Poe by Baudelaire, including Le Chat Noir], - from tomorrow morning, I will not move, not at all..."... Correspondance (Pléiade), t. I, p. 232. PROVENANCE Collection Armand Godoy (1982, n° 46)
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