CP 05634/en

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This page is a translated version of the page CP 05634 and the translation is 100% complete.
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Marcel Proust to Gaston Gallimard [between 12 and 14 October 1917]

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

[1]

Dear friend

Here is the end of my manuscript, plus the corrected proofs from 1 to 183. It is composed, as you can see, of a large notebook, and a thin notebook. As the thin notebook has been torn out of a larger one and with difficulty sewn back together, I believe it to be a bit fragile. As for the material state (I am only talking about that in this letter) of the pages of these notebooks, I think that those in the thin one are in a less sorry state than those in the thick one, which will probably require the wonderful cryptographic skill that your typist has shown[2]. The corrected proofs have been sent to you with the manuscript[3]. Your printer reads my handwriting in a confusing way. On the other hand, when he had to deal with the Grasset imprint, he changed or skipped words, whole sentences. The characters will not be as small on the proofs, will they, because that would be illegible. I am at your command as regards Grasset[4]. Nevertheless, given that I am at the moment in a rather ill-defined position with him, as you know, and that he is only looking for a pretext to modify things, I think it would be better not to give him cause to do so by making me write to him, and it seems to me that on this inessential issue, which is self-evident, it would be quite natural for you to write to him: "Now that I have become the publisher of Mr. Proust, I wish to buy you out, with his agreement, etc."[5]. Besides, he holds the N.R.F. in high regard. I have not yet received a reply from Montesquiou. Perhaps your friend went to his house with my letter. If he was well received, tell me so that I can thank Montesquiou. I found that your new (shaven) face suits you admirably. I like you in all aspects but this one seemed very pleasant to me. Dear friend, out of discretion, out of lack of strength, out of fear of abusing yours, I have not spoken to you in this letter about the thing I am thinking about the most, your trip (which I learned of quite recently and by chance[6]) and the effect it may have on your health.

As for Grasset, the more I think about it, the more advantageous my idea (which I am ready to give up) seems to me. As soon as you leave, I will be exposed to his requests, and of course I will not give in to them. But by writing to him, you as a publisher, and a publisher respected by him, you are cutting the ties. I think that would be better.

Yours affectionately, dear friend,

Marcel Proust

Last minute: I hear that Madame Lemarié (at least I suppose it was her) came while Céleste, who never goes out, had gone to her sister-in-law's house on rue Laffitte. I cannot tell you how sad I would be if it were Madame Lemarié[7]. I am not delaying the dispatch of the proofs that you have made me say are "very urgent"[8] by extending this message.

There are in these proofs, there will be in the others, certain pages (for the four volumes perhaps four or five pages) of which I cannot know before having corrected everything if they will need to be moved to a different part. On the one hand, in such a long work, a passage may have been placed twice and as my book is not an Iliad, these repetitions would be inexcusable. On the other hand, there is a question of balance that I will only see once I have seen the whole. But I believe that these transfers, even if they occur, will not entail the interchange of more than five or six pages[9].

I told you that in my corrected proofs there was only one bis, there are two or three, and even a ter, the 152ter whose small tear doesn't mean anything.

[10] [11]

Notes

  1. ↑ This letter follows Gallimard's letter of 11 October, 1917 (CP 05450; MP-GG, no. 37), and precedes two letters from Gallimard dated 15 October, one to Grasset (MP-GG, no. 38), the other to Proust (CP 05632; MP-GG, no. 39). It must therefore have been written between 12 and 14 October 1917.[CSz]
  2. ↑ See Francine Goujon, "Le manuscrit de À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs : le 'cahier violet'", Bulletin Marcel Proust, no. 49, 1999, p. 7-16. This description, which corresponds to the future "cahier violet", confirms F. Goujon's hypothesis that the second cahier, if it really exists, must be "excessively brief" (p. 11-12): a bundle of pages torn out and sewn together. Mlle Rallet could simply have regrouped the two parts in a folder or a purple cover to preserve the pages in poor condition and the order of the text, until the phase of cutting and reconstitution in proof sheets. This regrouping into a single material unit would explain the passage noted by F. Goujon (p. 11) from two notebooks in October 1917 to a single notebook in April-May 1918. Proust mentions again "the 2 notebooks I sent you", "the 2 notebooks on Albertine that you have" in his letter to Gallimard of [17 October 1917] (CP 04453; MP-GG, no. 41).[CSz]
  3. ↑ See Francine Goujon, "Les épreuves de À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs : deux lettres à redater", Bulletin Marcel Proust, no. 48, 1998, pp. 42-48. The corrected proofs from 1 to 183 that Proust attached to the manuscript are thus the first proofs, covering the part on Madame Swann (summary table, p. 47), and exactly precede the batch mentioned in the letter to Mme Lemarié (p. 184-277 of the first proofs) that F. Goujon (ibid., p. 48) dates from [shortly before December 6, 1917], (CP 03451; MP-GG, no. 53). The typist must therefore have delivered pages 184-277 of the first proofs at the same time as she took away "the end of the manuscript" and the corrected proofs of pages 1-183 (CP 05632; MP-GG, no. 39).[CSz]
  4. ↑ See Gallimard's letter to Proust of 11 October 1917 (CP 05450; MP-GG, letter no. 37).[CSz]
  5. ↑ See Gallimard's letter to Grasset 15 October 1917 (MP-GG, letter no. 38).[CSz]
  6. ↑ Gallimard is about to leave for the United States with Jacques Copeau and the Vieux-Colombier theatre company. He will embark on 31 October 1917 on the liner Chicago.[CSz]
  7. ↑ See Gallimard's letter to Proust of 15 October 1917 (CP 05632; MP-GG, no. 39). It was in fact the typist, Mlle Rallet, who had run the errand.[CSz]
  8. ↑ See Gallimard's letter to Proust of 11 October 1917 (CP 05450; MP-GG, letter no. 37).[CSz]
  9. ↑ Five or six pages that become thirty pages of "waste" in the following letter when Gallimard worries about the thickness of the second volume upon receipt of the end of the manuscript (CP 04453; Kolb, XIX, no. 416).[CSz]
  10. ↑ Translation notes:
  11. ↑ Contributors: Lverstraten
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