CP 02924/en

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Marcel Proust to Eugénie Lémel [first days of March 1915]

(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 Eugénie[2]

I thank you a thousand times for your letter and the ever so tender feelings that you share with me[3]. The arduous consequences of my problems are too complicated for me to speak of to you in a letter. I have good news about Monsieur Robert[4], of M. Hahn[5], and of Nicolas[6]. But, naturally, we will never know what tomorrow will hold. Antoine’s son has left but is not yet on the firing line[7]. Many of my friends have been killed, but I do not know whether you are acquainted with them. Among the people who came to the house in your time, young Bénac was killed[8], little Tirman and little Catusse were injured[9], Madame Berge’s son (the daughter of Félix Faure) is imprisoned in Germany (I learned in the latest news that he is believed to have been killed) [10], little Derbanne[11] and M. de Fénelon were killed[12]. I cannot tell you what sadness the deaths of young people so full of bravery caused me. Monsieur de Fénelon was at the French Legation in Norway[13]. The government had asked him to stay there, but he insisted upon enlisting and going into the trenches. His sister, the Marquise de Montebello, had had her young husband killed by lightning three years earlier[14]. All of this enormous fortune will go to no-one. But money is meaningless. What was admirable about the Comte de Fénelon was his heart, his marvellous intelligence. You might recall that we went to Holland together [15].

Believe, my dear Eugénie, my sincere best regards.

Marcel Proust

Am I mistaken? Haven’t you been to Madame Thierry-Mieg’s[16] in the past? Because I saw that one of the Thierry-Mieg sons had been killed, I do not know if it’s that one[17]. On the other hand Mme Raimbert’s[18] nephew, Baron Lejeune was killed[19]. He just wed the daughter of Princess Murat [20], sister-in-law of my best friend the Marquis d'Albufera[21].


[22] [23]

Notes

  1. ↑ Letter dates from after 27 February 1915 (mention of the death of a son of Thierry-Mieg read about in the newspaper: see note 8 below) and several days before the letter to Georges de Lauris written [about 10 March 1915] (CP 02925; Kolb, XIV, no. 36: see notes 16 and 18 below). It must date then from the first days of March 1915. [PK, PW, FL]
  2. ↑ Eugénie Lémel was Mme Proust's chambermaid from 1890 or earlier: see the letter of [28 April 1890]: (CP 00023; Kolb, I, no. 23) and possibly up until 1901 (see the letter of [30 August 1901]: CP 00585; Kolb, II, no. 279). We have very little information about her, only that she died shortly before 4 August 1915 (letter from Proust to an unknown person, dated 4 August 1915: CP 02986; Kolb, XIV, no. 98). In Jean Santeuil Proust gave the first name Eugénie to a chambermaid (JS, p. 357 - see the manuscript, NAF 16615, f. 349 v: "Oh! the towels put in her bedroom by Eugénie [...]"). [PK, FL]
  3. ↑ No letter from Eugénie Lémel has been discovered. Proust praised her epistolary gifts several times. In the only other currently known letter from Proust to this recipient, probably dating from January 1915, he was already using these same terms: "your letter of good wishes (for which I thank you) reawakens the remorse I feel about not having yet thanked you for the such exquisite feelings that you expressed to me in the one before." (CP 05416; Cher ami..., p. 105 and p. 350, BPRS 59). When she was still in the Prousts' service several letters from Marcel to his mother show that he enjoyed corresponding with this chambermaid: "Thank Eugénie very much for her charming letter. I'm going to reply to her" (letter from [24 September 1899]: CP 00522; Kolb, II, no. 216); or again: "remarkable letter [...] from Eugénie" (letter from [30 August 1901]: CP 00585; Kolb, II, no. 279). [PW]
  4. ↑ Eugénie called Marcel Proust's brother "Monsieur Robert", according to the customs of domestic servants of the time (see P. Guiral and G. Thuillier, La Vie quotidienne des domestiques en France au XIXe, Paris, Hachette, 1978, p. 213). Robert Proust had left for Verdun as medical officer shortly after mobilization and operated there courageously under dangerous conditions: see Proust's letter to Robert de Billy [between 8 and 11 April 1915] (CP 02915 and its note 8; Kolb, XIV, no. 26). [PK, PW, FL]
  5. ↑ At that time Reynaldo Hahn was in Argonne: see the postcard from Hahn to Proust [shortly before 5 March? 1915] (CP 02913; Kolb, XIV, no. 24) or Proust's letter to Robert de Billy [between 8 and 11 April 1915], p. 6 (CP 02915; Kolb, XIV, no. 26). [PW, FL]
  6. ↑ Nicolas Cottin, Proust's valet, was called up mid-August 1914. Proust had already passed on his news to Eugénie in a previous letter: "Nicolas is in the East, I don't know exactly where." (CP 05416; Cher ami..., p. 350, BPRS 59 - see note 3 above). He died in the saint-Antoine hospital in Paris, 4 July 1916, from pleurisy contracted at the front (see his record in the military recruitment register, as well as his record for other ranks "Memorial for men", in the category "Did not die for France"). [PK, PW]
  7. ↑ Note 7
  8. ↑ Note 8
  9. ↑ Note 9
  10. ↑ Note 10
  11. ↑ Note 11
  12. ↑ Note 12
  13. ↑ Note 13
  14. ↑ Note 14
  15. ↑ Note 15
  16. ↑ Note 16
  17. ↑ Note 17
  18. ↑ Note 18
  19. ↑ Note 19
  20. ↑ Note 20
  21. ↑ Note 21
  22. ↑ Translation notes:
  23. ↑ Contributors:
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