CP 02929/en
Madeleine Lemaire to Marcel Proust Tuesday 6 April [1915]
(Click on the link above to see this letter and its notes in the Corr-Proust digital edition, including all relevant hyperlinks.)
Tuesday 6 April[1]
My dear Marcel
I have discovered you all over again in the long letter[2] that you took the trouble to write me, which touched and amused me. I hope writing it did not cause you too much fatigue and as for me I assure you it was delightful to read. I felt like I was chatting to you. So I am replying to what you tell me. I assure you that our melancholies have much in common, since they likely have the same causes, and that our general disenchantment comes from the cataclysm that we are witnessing. Do not say that your moral state is incurable, because you are young, and you can hope to witness a rebirth, whereas I will not be given the time; I can only end my days in sadness. In spite of that I try to function still, I call upon my energies in the belief that I still have a little left, I work in an effort to convince myself that I am interested in it, but mostly so as not to think about anything else
What a shame that I can’t talk to you about all this and how sad that we can’t chat together like we used to, and share our two melancholies, which would perhaps give us greater strength to bear them.
Thank you for the offer of your physician[3], I will take him up when I am next ill, because my current illness is drawing to an end I hope. I’m feeling better and it hasn’t come too soon, after four weeks, and if good weather comes I shall be fully cured and can finally make my way back to Réveillon; because I am very unhappy when I think of Suzette all on her own there.
Moving on to the third point in your letter about laxative tablets. Thank you for that too!!! I have no need of them.
But how you think of everything!
I don’t know if Céleste’s husband has a motorcar that would enable him to make a long trip[4]. But I’m still hoping that they are going to reinstate a train for the Marne because people have been clamouring for it from the Company. Sorry for talking about myself so much and about things that are of little interest to you, I am merely replying to you.
Let’s talk about you now. I am very sorry to hear you are in such low spirits. I had found you to be so well last year when I met you at Reynaldo’s conference[5]. You had regained your old appearance. And yet the year has been a good one for you from the literary point of view, you have had great success, which you richly deserved. You must have been pleased about that, in spite of everything
When will I be able to see you again? I have to come back in May. I assure you it would be a great pleasure for me to see you again and chat[6].
With much love
Madeleine Lemaire
Forgive my rambling letter. I am worn out.
Notes
- ↑ Between 1909 and 1920, the only year in which the 6 April fell on a Tuesday was 1915. [PK]
- ↑ Letter has not been found. [PK, FP]
- ↑ Possibly Dr Maurice Bize. Shortly after receiving this letter from Madeleine Lemaire Proust was summoned to appear before a Review Board on 13 April 1915 (CP 02930 and CP 05643); on 10 April Bize wrote him out a new medical certificate. (CP 05640). [FP]
- ↑ According to Céleste Albaret's recollections, her husband Odilon was called up at the start of the war, even if he "had to hang about for a whole month or maybe more" before he left (Monsieur Proust, souvenirs recueillis par Georges Belmont, Robert Laffont, 1973, p. 39-40). His military record in the Seine matriculation register confirms these recollections: he had joined his regiment (19e Escadron du Train des équipages) on 3 August 1914, and was transferred to the 13e Régiment d'artillerie on 1st September 1914, where he remained until 1st June 1916, the date of a new assignment to the military supply section. In 1915 then he was no longer driving taxis. [PK, FP, FL]
- ↑ Between 23 November to 20 December 1913 Reynaldo Hahn had given a series of conferences, "The Art of Song", at the Université des Annales, and again from 29 April to 18 May 1914 ("Les Conférences de Reynaldo Hahn", Les Annales politiques et littéraires, 15 mars 1914, p. 229). No documentation has been found to identify which session Proust and Madeleine Lemaire attended. [FP, FL]
- ↑ Madeleine Lemaire's wish to see Proust "again" after, it appears, not having seen him since "last year" (which is to say between 27 April 1914 and 18 May 1914, see note 5 above) makes the dating of Reynaldo Hahn's postcard to Proust (CP 02913) uncertain (Kolb, XIV, no. 24). Hahn wrote: "I know that the Widow [Madame Lemaire] has been to see you: I am just picturing to myself everything that surrounded, preceded, marked and followed her visit", which seems to place his postcard after this letter from Madeleine Lemaire, dated 6 April [1915]. But other things that Hahn wrote complicate the precise dating of his postcard: see CP 02913, notes 1 and 3. [FP]
- ↑ Translation notes:
- ↑ Contributors: Yorktaylors