CP 04853/en

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This page is a translated version of the page CP 04853 and the translation is 100% complete.


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Marcel Proust to Henri de Régnier [Friday 12 December 1919]

(Click on the link above to see this letter and its notes in the Corr-Proust digital edition, including all relevant hyperlinks.)

[1]

My dear sir and friend,

I was deeply touched by the warm congratulations in your letter for such a minor achievement[2]. Despite my current state, I had intended, truly, to write back, until I received charming congratulations from Madame de Régnier which delighted, yet distressed me all the same.[3]. Thus presented with a question of academic concern, I shall take the liberty to discuss such matters in my correspondence to you. And as for Madame de Régnier, to avoid repetition for my part, I shall write her my thanks tomorrow, telling her that I had discussed the academic aspects with you earlier and will bother her no further. I say, “no further”, of course, with the knowledge that, you and your wife being one, she will doubtless learn of the contents of this letter no later than you. Madame de Régnier tells me that the Prix Goncourt is mine but she would almost be tempted to regret it because she was working on my behalf for the Grand Prix de l’Académie.[4] If it came from any other person, I would have believed it to be a retrospective kindness, without any truth. But I know — since the distant times of the “Canaques”[5] — that she is frankness itself. I was also touched beyond words, and on the other hand very perplexed, I am going to, if my strength can sustain me to the end of this letter, tell you why. I don’t exactly remember the time when I told you about the Grand Prix de littérature (and how could I have hoped that Madame de Régnier would work for me when you had taken a stand — and you told me it with extreme frankness and delicacy — for someone else)[6] but it seems likely to me that I didn’t speak to you about the Prix Goncourt. Here’s the reason: I wasn’t thinking of it at all and hadn’t sent my books to the academicians. However (I believe since my correspondence with yourself) as I was saying to Reynaldo Hahn (who has left Léon Daudet) how much I regretted that the latter did not like my books nor comprehend their veiled yet rigorous composition, Reynaldo replied to me that, to the contrary, as someone had spoken of the Prix Goncourt and of a candidate, Léon Daudet had replied “that is not my view: I find the works of Proust to be superb, Du côté de chez Swann and Jeunes filles en fleurs and I’ll vote for him.”[7] When I learnt this, I sent my book to the members of the Goncourt jury, on the off chance, but afterwards I was informed and received the assurance that the Prix Goncourt, if it excludes the award of La Vie Heureuse[8], does not exclude in any case the award of the Academie Française. I add that I believed I had no chance at winning the Prix Goncourt. I learned gradually that Mr Élémir Bourges and Rosny aîné thought very highly of my books, but I did not know that they would advocate for them. I did not even know when the Prix Goncourt was. And when Léon Daudet came to announce to me that I had won it, it was like receiving a New Year's present at Christmas and in a year where no presents had been expected. Unfortunately Madame de Régnier’s letter (but will I be able to get to the end of this letter) seems to indicate that, contrary to what I was told, the Prix Goncourt excludes those from the Academy. If this is the case (she didn’t tell me this, but her letter seems to imply it), can I expect it for next year? I will be greatly interested in knowing, here’s why. I intend to publish all my other volumes together, which were written since 1914. However one of them, even without the immoral aspects (rather the opposite; quite involuntarily), is of such bluntness that it might make the Prix de l’Académie hold back. Hence, I would prefer to wait so as to publish them together. As I was financially ruined in 1913, I am not indifferent to a prize. And the Goncourt will lose its effect on book sales, because my publisher neglected to tell me that the work had sold out, and given the time it takes to reprint it, the few people that pay attention to the Prix Goncourt, will have forgotten about it. Admittedly, it is very true as was written in an otherwise absurd article in I don’t know which newspaper, that it is unfortunate to receive prizes at an age where one should rather be awarding them. But as I don’t think I ever had any chance of becoming a member of the Académie Française, I would prefer the Grand Prix de littérature which would get me read by some people and shine a bit of light on my otherwise unknown name, I would prefer the Grand Prix de littérature than nothing. I believe (without their ever having spoken of all that) that quite a few members of the Académie Française would be in my favour. I haven't yet sent my book to France nor to Barrès, for the same reason that I didn't send the full set to the Régnier household, through lack of first editions. But I know, despite not having seen them for fifteen years, how they feel towards me. As luck would have it, the academicians who, in the field of literature would seem to be hostile to me, are on the contrary favourable. Yesterday I received a long letter of congratulations from Henry Bordeaux[9] who I have not seen for twenty five years. Maybe if this bothers the Académie to award the same book as the Goncourt[10], the Académie could award the collection of works instead (À la recherche du temps perdu, Pastiches et mélanges, Les Plaisirs et les Jours).

Please let me know your opinion, and I offer you my high esteem, and ask you to accept and share my esteem and gratitude with Madame de Régnier.

Marcel Proust

[11] [12]

Notes

  1. ↑ This letter must date from Friday December 12 1919: gratitude for congratulations regarding the Prix Goncourt and mention of letters received on 11 December (see notes 2, 3, and especially 9 below). [PK, FL]
  2. ↑ Congratulations for the Prix Goncourt. This letter has not been traced. [PK]
  3. ↑ Word of congratulations from Marie de Régnier, most likely written on Thursday 11th December 1919 (see letter CP03978; Kolb XVII, no. 298). This note was brought with no stamp or postmark. We don’t know if Proust received it on the day or night of the 11 or 12 December.
  4. ↑ This is with regards to the major prize awarded on behalf of the Académie Française, the Grand Prix de littérature de l'Académie française, as seen later on in the letter. Created in 1911, it was awarded annually. [FL]
  5. ↑ The "Académie Canaque" was founded by Marie de Heredia around 1893–1895, to which Proust and Régnier were members. See note 2 of Marie de Régnier’s letter to Proust from [11 December 1919] (CP 03978; Kolb, XVIII, no. 298). [FL]
  6. ↑ This “other” was Edmond Jaloux, who indeed won the Grand Prix de littérature de l'Académie française in 1920. See the following letter from Proust to Henri de Régnier [shortly after December 12 1919] and its note 3 (CP 04854; Kolb, XX, no. 377). [PK, FL]
  7. ↑ Proust learnt of Léon Daudet’s intention from Reynaldo Hahn, who had stayed at the Daudet’s in La Roche (Indre-et-Loire). See the letter from Proust to Louis de Robert from [the start of September 1919] (CP 03902; Kolb, XVIII, no. 221). [PK]
  8. ↑ Awarded by the Committee of women’s magazine La Vie heureuse, this prize was founded in 1904 in protest against the misogyny of the members of the Goncourt Jury, and to recognise the works of male and female authors in an unbiased way. The other big women’s magazine of the time, Femina, was merged with La Vie heureuse in 1917, the prize was called "Vie heureuse" or "Vie heureuse - Femina" for several years before taking on the name "Prix Femina" in 1922. [FL]
  9. ↑ The letter from Bordeaux has not been traced, nor has any correspondence exchanged between him and Proust from that period. As Bordeaux likely didn’t know Proust’s recent address in Rue Hamelin, it is probable that wrote to the author through the Nouvelle Revue française, situated 37 rue Madame, from where the letter would have been forwarded to him: even supposing that this “long letter” was written as soon as the Prix Goncourt was announced, i.e. on the afternoon of 10 Décember, and posted in the evening, Proust could not therefore have received it before 11 December, on account of its (probable) detour. Since he said he had received this letter "yesterday", he must therefore have written to Régnier on 12 December. [PK, FL]
  10. ↑ Unlike the Prix Goncourt, the Académie française's Grand Prix de littérature does not give an award to a single book, as Proust seems to believe throughout this letter, but, rather, to a writer's entire body of work. [FL]
  11. ↑ Translation notes:
  12. ↑ Contributors: Skelly, Rgarner, M.deshpande, Yorktaylors, Etaafuli
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