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110
PROUST Marcel (1871-1922).
The item was sold for 18 200 €
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PROUST Marcel (1871-1922).
L.A.S. "Marcel Proust", Cabourg Gd Hôtel [September 24, 1910], to André de FOUQUIÈRES in Biarritz| 16 pages in-8, envelope on the letterhead of the Grand Hôtel Cabourg.
Very long and extraordinary unpublished letter, in which Proust explains at length his renunciation of journalism in order to devote himself to his novel, which is his whole life, and his affection for Lucien Daudet.
[André de FOUQUIÈRES (1874-1959), writer and socialite, arbiter of Parisian elegance, had just published De l'art, de l'élégance, de la charité (de Boccard, 1910), for which he had to ask Proust for an article].
If he were not so tired, he would like to write to his dear André "thirty pages of letter", unable to write the requested chronicle, and "so clearly to explain to you why that not a shadow of doubt could remain in your mind about the deep feeling I have for you and which suffers so bitterly from refusing you the first proof you ask of it". He wrote "a few articles in the Figaro. I stopped three years ago because, being ill, I couldn't do many.
But however silly it may seem to say that from an unknown person like me, [...] it so happens that very well-known, illustrious writers, some of them masters to whom I had great obligations, others very dear friends, asked me to write articles about them because they liked my way of writing"| but, in order not to offend anyone, he preferred "to stop writing articles altogether. Besides, my health was getting worse and I started a big book, which is my whole life now, and if God gives me the chance to finish it, then, delivered, I will start writing in newspapers again. He made one exception for Lucien DAUDET: "I was disgusted by the conspiracy of silence around his admirable talent.
And then you know what he was for me for fifteen years [...] My only duel [against Jean LORRAIN] was because of him and our slandered friendship. And for the second one (for a completely different reason) it was his brother who was my witness. His father was divine to me. Now that I no longer see Lucien, that no one in his house can be of any use to me, it is sweet to be able to do him this kindness. The article, ready since July, was sent to L'Intransigeant, "because the Figaro was vile to me in refusing after a year's wait to publish the first part of my novel (this between us) (a novel dedicated to Calmette!) (but for Calmette too I am happy to give him this token of my gratitude)", and also to be more discreet, "and to run less risk of being seen by these masters whom I do not want to offend by breaking my promise of silence as long as I have not spoken of them. He does not want "to seem to attach importance to my unfortunate prose", whereas it is "rather out of kindness to me and to fl atter me" that
Fouquières requests this article. But Proust does not want to "let him suppose that it is for lack of friendship and devotion that I tell you I cannot. It is a moral impossibility. If Fouquières has no one at the Figaro, Proust is prepared to write the column, "on condition that I do not sign the article with my name (which is, moreover, how I spoke of books)", and on condition that Fouquières warns Calmette, "because since he did this to me for this novel I cannot do it for him, I cannot offer him prose that he does not ask of me. If he asks me, I can send an unsigned article (signed with a pseudonym). But it would be better to ask someone else... He would like, in compensation, in the absence of an "intellectual souvenir", to offer his friend a "material souvenir" which would please him: "it will be a sentimental consolation for me, because in this object I will put all my heart". He ends by regretting not being able to make the acquaintance of M. de VOGÜÉ: "I will not be able to see him because I have only got up once in 2 and ½ months outside the hotel and I am too down to make acquaintances"...
L.A.S. "Marcel Proust", Cabourg Gd Hôtel [September 24, 1910], to André de FOUQUIÈRES in Biarritz| 16 pages in-8, envelope on the letterhead of the Grand Hôtel Cabourg.
Very long and extraordinary unpublished letter, in which Proust explains at length his renunciation of journalism in order to devote himself to his novel, which is his whole life, and his affection for Lucien Daudet.
[André de FOUQUIÈRES (1874-1959), writer and socialite, arbiter of Parisian elegance, had just published De l'art, de l'élégance, de la charité (de Boccard, 1910), for which he had to ask Proust for an article].
If he were not so tired, he would like to write to his dear André "thirty pages of letter", unable to write the requested chronicle, and "so clearly to explain to you why that not a shadow of doubt could remain in your mind about the deep feeling I have for you and which suffers so bitterly from refusing you the first proof you ask of it". He wrote "a few articles in the Figaro. I stopped three years ago because, being ill, I couldn't do many.
But however silly it may seem to say that from an unknown person like me, [...] it so happens that very well-known, illustrious writers, some of them masters to whom I had great obligations, others very dear friends, asked me to write articles about them because they liked my way of writing"| but, in order not to offend anyone, he preferred "to stop writing articles altogether. Besides, my health was getting worse and I started a big book, which is my whole life now, and if God gives me the chance to finish it, then, delivered, I will start writing in newspapers again. He made one exception for Lucien DAUDET: "I was disgusted by the conspiracy of silence around his admirable talent.
And then you know what he was for me for fifteen years [...] My only duel [against Jean LORRAIN] was because of him and our slandered friendship. And for the second one (for a completely different reason) it was his brother who was my witness. His father was divine to me. Now that I no longer see Lucien, that no one in his house can be of any use to me, it is sweet to be able to do him this kindness. The article, ready since July, was sent to L'Intransigeant, "because the Figaro was vile to me in refusing after a year's wait to publish the first part of my novel (this between us) (a novel dedicated to Calmette!) (but for Calmette too I am happy to give him this token of my gratitude)", and also to be more discreet, "and to run less risk of being seen by these masters whom I do not want to offend by breaking my promise of silence as long as I have not spoken of them. He does not want "to seem to attach importance to my unfortunate prose", whereas it is "rather out of kindness to me and to fl atter me" that
Fouquières requests this article. But Proust does not want to "let him suppose that it is for lack of friendship and devotion that I tell you I cannot. It is a moral impossibility. If Fouquières has no one at the Figaro, Proust is prepared to write the column, "on condition that I do not sign the article with my name (which is, moreover, how I spoke of books)", and on condition that Fouquières warns Calmette, "because since he did this to me for this novel I cannot do it for him, I cannot offer him prose that he does not ask of me. If he asks me, I can send an unsigned article (signed with a pseudonym). But it would be better to ask someone else... He would like, in compensation, in the absence of an "intellectual souvenir", to offer his friend a "material souvenir" which would please him: "it will be a sentimental consolation for me, because in this object I will put all my heart". He ends by regretting not being able to make the acquaintance of M. de VOGÜÉ: "I will not be able to see him because I have only got up once in 2 and ½ months outside the hotel and I am too down to make acquaintances"...