CP 03979/en
Louis de Robert to Marcel Proust [Thursday 11 December 1919]
(Click on the link above to see this letter and its notes in the Corr-Proust digital edition, including all relevant hyperlinks.)
Bravo, dear Marcel.
I did not believe in your success because I was relying on the state of mind that had so far influenced the votes. But this state of mind represented mainly by Mirbeau and Descaves could not prevail against you since Mirbeau is no more and - as I read in this morning's newspapers - Descaves is ignoring the Goncourt Academy [2].
The surprise increases my joy. You are now famous. But you were almost already famous. And I did not know it. I live such a solitary existence that I did not know that everyone had read Swann's Way at the time I wrote in the Roman d'une Comédienne "this little-known book"(!)[3] You must have smiled to find me so ill-informed.
You triumphed over a detestable tradition that made the Goncourt Prize a bonus for poverty. Poverty is respectable, I know something about it. But finally, when it comes to judging a work of art, do these questions count? Whether the author is poor or rich, what does it matter?
Yours sincerely,
Louis de Robert
PS – I no longer have your address. Give it to me[4].
Notes
- ↑ This letter is dated [Thursday, December 11, 1919]: reference to the morning papers about Descaves. [PK]
- ↑ L'Éclair of Thursday, December 11 1919 published on the front page an article by M. Gérault-Richard entitled Les Trois Petits Tours du Scrutin. We read: "The "Goncourts" met yesterday at Drouant's [...] Not present at the meeting were Messrs. Émile Bergerat and Lucien Descaves, who voted by mail. [...] Once the ballot was over and the vote declared, the academicians allowed themselves to share in each others’ confidences as they were putting on their overcoats. - Descaves and Bergerat voted in every round for Les Croix de bois, declared Jean Ajalbert. - "But," said Léon Hennique, "so did I."" [PK]
- ↑ In Le Roman d'une comédienne (Paris, Flammarion, 1919), Thérèse writes to Sir George: "I have several books in progress [...] a little-known book by Marcel Proust, Du côté de chez Swann; the title does not say much, but [...] Louis de Robert is very enthusiastic about it" (p. 184). [PK]
- ↑ Proust moved twice in 1919: around May 31, from 102 boulevard Haussmann to 8 bis rue Laurent-Pichat, to an apartment belonging to the actress Réjane, then from rue Laurent-Pichat to 44 rue Hamelin around October 1. He had already mentioned his housing problems to Louis de Robert in a letter dated [first days of September 1919]: "As the provisional lease granted to me by Réjane is expiring and it is very difficult to find lodgings, my address is not quite certain, so the best thing would be for you to write to me in care of the Nouvelle Revue Française, 37, rue Madame" (CP 03902; Kolb, XVIII, no. 221). [CSz]
- ↑ Translation notes:
- ↑ Contributors: Lverstraten