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<ref name="n2"> Cottin had been mobilized mid-April 1914. In December 1914, Proust wrote to his mother's aged chambermaid, Eugénie Lémel: "Nicolas is in the East, I'm not sure exactly where" (CP 05416; Reiner Speck collection, BPRS no. 59, cf. Cher Ami...Votre Marcel Proust. Marcel Proust im Spiegel seiner Korrespondenz / Marcel Proust et sa correspondance. Briefe und Autographen aus der / Lettres et autographes de la Bibliotheca Proustiana Reiner Speck, Cologne, Snoeck, 2009, p. 104 et 350). Then, in Carnet 4 (f. 38 r.), Proust notes down the exact address where Cottin haad been since July 1915: "Nicolas Auxiliary Military Hospital no. 16 Belley Ain". The town of Belley (Ain) is where the 133e régiment d'Infanterie were stationed  (Almanach Hachette 1915, p. 201). [PK, FP, PW]</ref>
<ref name="n2"> Cottin had been mobilized mid-April 1914. In December 1914, Proust wrote to his mother's aged chambermaid, Eugénie Lémel: "Nicolas is in the East, I'm not sure exactly where" (CP 05416; Reiner Speck collection, BPRS no. 59, cf. Cher Ami...Votre Marcel Proust. Marcel Proust im Spiegel seiner Korrespondenz / Marcel Proust et sa correspondance. Briefe und Autographen aus der / Lettres et autographes de la Bibliotheca Proustiana Reiner Speck, Cologne, Snoeck, 2009, p. 104 et 350). Then, in Carnet 4 (f. 38 r.), Proust notes down the exact address where Cottin haad been since July 1915: "Nicolas Auxiliary Military Hospital no. 16 Belley Ain". The town of Belley (Ain) is where the 133e régiment d'Infanterie were stationed  (Almanach Hachette 1915, p. 201). [PK, FP, PW]</ref>


<ref name="n3"> Note 3 </ref>
<ref name="n3"> Marie Céline Augustine Pagnon was born 6 September 1879 (registry of birth, no. 1114, 7 September 1879, Paris Ie, V4E 2555, online, image 3). She married Nicolas Cottin on 26 September 1901 (registry of marriage no. 1741, Paris XVIIe, V4E 10244, en ligne, image 3). At that date he was "employed" and she was a "cook", both living in the same street in the XVII arrondissement of Paris. They had one son, Antoine André Nicolas Cottin (1909-1966). At the time of his birth they were both resident at Marcel Proust's apartment, 102 boulevard Haussmann (cf. registry of birth no. 1269, 13 July 1909, Paris VIIIe, 8N 154, online, image 15). [PW] </ref>


<ref name="n4"> Note 4 </ref>
<ref name="n4"> Note 4 </ref>

Revision as of 10:31, 14 January 2021

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Marcel Proust tp Nicolas Cottin 22 October 1915

22 October 1915

My dear Nicolas

I am very late with my reply to you[1]. So late that I was worried that my note would no longer reach you at Belley[2]. But Céline[3] told me to risk it all the same. If I am so late it isn’t my fault. Griefs and cares have never ceased. I have spoken to you about my young Meyer cousins who have been at the front since the beginning. The youngest one has been killed[4] and I had to try to be at the service of their poor mother who is expecting the same fate for the others. And secondly, what nobody had foreseen, the liquidation of the Bourse, which we thought would be restored after the war, when shares had risen again slightly, happened at the end of September[5] . We have ten months to payr[6]. But to pay a hundred and fifty thousand francs it will still be necessary to find fifteen thousand francs every month and as the old saying goes money doesn’t grow on trees. Fortunately with regard to my advance on securities, the liquidation doesn’t affect it, and the moratorium delays the repayment. But the moratorium itself could soon come to an end! I’m sure that even beyond the consequences for you and our allies, you sympathize with the untold sufferings of the Serbs[7]. The massacres in Belgium were child’s play next to what is taking place in Serbia. It is not only the soldiers, but civilians too, all of them being wiped out. Clearly, when not a single Serb is left in Serbia, the Bulgarians will have all the cards in their hands to claim that there are only Bulgarian populations in Serbia, which they will then be obliged to annex. It makes one shudder to think that human beings can behave towards other human beings with such ferocity

I hope you are fully recovered[8] and that I will soon have the pleasure of shaking your hand. Your devoted

Marcel Proust

[9] [10]

Notes

  1. ↑ The letter from Nicolas Cottin has not been found. Indeed not a single letter from Nicolas Cottin to Marcel Proust has ever turned up. Only two letters from Proust to Nicolas have been published to this day (CP 02123; Kolb, X, no. 66, and this one). On the other hand Philip Kolb found four letters from Proust to Céline Cottin (CP 01854, CP 01923, CP 01996 and CP 02972; Kolb, VIII, no. 110 and 179; IX, no. 71; XIV, no. 83). Nicolas Cottin was born in Brouillat, commune of Marizy (Saône et Loire), 30 January 1873 (register of births n° 6, Marizy, 5 E 279/11, online, image 3). First of all he was the Proust family valet, subsequently Marcel's valet, who then sometimes employed him as secretary (see his portrait by Paul Nadar in 1914). As a matter of fact, despite Cottin's poor spelling, Proust dictated at least one letter to him (CP 02277; Kolb, XI, no. 13) and numerous pages of drafts for his novel (see Anthony Pugh, "Sur le copiste de la première dactylographie", BIP, nº 31, 2000, p. 23-30 ; see also L'Agenda 1906, Introduction, note 19). Céline, as Céleste Albaret would be, was interviewed later about her recollections. In 1954 she recalled Nicolas's participation in Proust's writing in these words: "His pages were scattered everywhere. My husband collected them together for him using a little stapler. Sometimes Nicolas would even make corrections to what he wrote. [...] Monsieur would dictate phrases to Nicolas that he had forgotten." (Paul Guth, "À l'ombre des Marcel Proust", Le Figaro littéraire, 25 September 1954, p. 4.) It seems that he had just as little appreciation of his master as he had for his writing, because he told Céline: "It's annoying, but you'll see, he's going to be somebody" and, after the publication of Du côté de chez Swann he said: "His words are just as annoying as he is. But you wait and see, after he's dead he'll be a success..." (Céline quotes her husband in two interviews. See Paul Guth, op. cit; et S. Ch.-M., "À la recherche de Combray. Céline – gouvernante de Marcel Proust – nous décrit la vie intime de son maître", La Tribune de Lausanne, 11 September 1960, p. 13). For an example of Nicolas Cottin's handwriting, see the added manuscript pages in the typescript of Du côté de chez Swann (NAF 16730, f. 5-6 r.). Also it seems that Proust thought of Nicolas's father, Lazare Cottin, for the character of Bloch's father, as revealed by two explanatory notes in Cahier 57: on a paperole in f. 47 r. and on f. 64 r., in an addition in the left margin (see RTP, t. IV, Esquisse LXVII, p. 971). For details in the civil registry about Lazare Cottin, born 13 March 1846, in Brouillat, see his registry of birth (no. 8, 14 March 1846, Marizy, 5 E 279/6, online, image 30), and his marriage to Anne Marie Magnin-Curt (14 January 1872, no. 1, Marizy, 5 E 279/9, online, image 1). We also learn that at that time Nicolas's father was a wheelwright and his mother a domestic servant and she was also an orphan (cf. birth certificate no. 4068, 7 October 1851, Lyon, 2E452, online, image 236). [FP, PW]
  2. ↑ Cottin had been mobilized mid-April 1914. In December 1914, Proust wrote to his mother's aged chambermaid, Eugénie Lémel: "Nicolas is in the East, I'm not sure exactly where" (CP 05416; Reiner Speck collection, BPRS no. 59, cf. Cher Ami...Votre Marcel Proust. Marcel Proust im Spiegel seiner Korrespondenz / Marcel Proust et sa correspondance. Briefe und Autographen aus der / Lettres et autographes de la Bibliotheca Proustiana Reiner Speck, Cologne, Snoeck, 2009, p. 104 et 350). Then, in Carnet 4 (f. 38 r.), Proust notes down the exact address where Cottin haad been since July 1915: "Nicolas Auxiliary Military Hospital no. 16 Belley Ain". The town of Belley (Ain) is where the 133e régiment d'Infanterie were stationed (Almanach Hachette 1915, p. 201). [PK, FP, PW]
  3. ↑ Marie Céline Augustine Pagnon was born 6 September 1879 (registry of birth, no. 1114, 7 September 1879, Paris Ie, V4E 2555, online, image 3). She married Nicolas Cottin on 26 September 1901 (registry of marriage no. 1741, Paris XVIIe, V4E 10244, en ligne, image 3). At that date he was "employed" and she was a "cook", both living in the same street in the XVII arrondissement of Paris. They had one son, Antoine André Nicolas Cottin (1909-1966). At the time of his birth they were both resident at Marcel Proust's apartment, 102 boulevard Haussmann (cf. registry of birth no. 1269, 13 July 1909, Paris VIIIe, 8N 154, online, image 15). [PW]
  4. ↑ Note 4
  5. ↑ Note 5
  6. ↑ Note 6
  7. ↑ Note 7
  8. ↑ Note 8
  9. ↑ Translation notes:
  10. ↑ Contributors:
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