CP 02890/en
Marcel Proust to Louis de Robert 3 January [1915]
3 January[1]
102 boulevard Haussmann
Dear friend
In this terrible anguish of war and the anguish that was my “Pre-War”[2] (because the whole of last summer was for me the cruellest of my life[3]), I have never stopped thinking about you - as a great friend of the mind - in the midst of misfortunes when I was no longer in possession of my mind
And then war broke out! On the first day my brother left for Verdun[4] as a major, and since then has never ceased to be in the most terrible danger in the firing line[5]. My dearest friends are all at the front. It gives me some peace of mind at least to know that you can’t “go”. As for myself I’ve still not passed my exemption review. I hope that your health does not suffer too cruelly from the repercussions of these anxieties, and also that your friends haven’t been too much put to the test. Alas, I already have friends[6], even family members[7] who have been killed.
Je ne sais pas si vous êtes de mon avis, je trouve la presse bien inférieure aux grandes choses dont elle parle. Je lui trouve un ton déplorable et qui risque de diminuer la portée de la Victoire, de la Victoire hélas encore si lointaine. Puisse-t-elle venir en 1915 et sans que de vos amis les plus chers soient tombés. Cher ami que 1915 vous apporte aussi un affermissement de votre santé et l'inspiration de belles œuvres.
De tout mon cœur, votre
Marcel Proust