CP 03786/en
Anna de Noailles to Marcel Proust Monday [26 mai 1919]
(Click on the link above to see this letter and its notes in the Corr-Proust digital edition, including all relevant hyperlinks.)
Pneumatique
Monsieur Marcel Proust 102 boulevard Haussmann
Monday[1]
Dear friend,
My secretary and myself have searched in vain for the address for cork[2] (that heroic name that has put up so much resistance[3], has nevertheless disappeared from our books). But it was Bernstein[4] who told me about this naval supplies contractor (Why?).
If Bernstein can't remember either I think you could send for information to Maison Leys[5], Cité du Retiro 5[6]. Tel : Élysées 29-42.
With my most affectionate and faithful thoughts. Anna
Notes
- ↑ This note has only the heading "Monday", but the two postal stamps allow it to be dated as 26 May 1919. [PK,ChC]
- ↑ Proust had had sheets of cork affixed to the walls and ceiling of his bedroom in 1910 (see CP 02137; Kolb, X, no. 80). Before moving lodgings he wanted to sell the cork. He had asked Comte Mathieu de Noailles, who he had met on the evening of 25 May at Princesse Edmind de Polignac's, to have this address sent to him by his wife: see his reply to Anna de Noailles (CP 03787, note 9; Kolb, XVIII, no. 106) and, more explicitly, his letter to Jacques Porel of [Tuesday morning, 27 May 1919] (CP 03788; cf. Kolb,XVIII, no. 107). [PK, ChC]
- ↑ An allusion to the resistance put up by Lièges at the time of the invasion of Belgium by the German army in the First World War. In reality, the city of Liège was not encircled by walls and did not undergo a siege: the German army was able to invade it without any great difficulty as early as 7 August 1914. But as the town was encompassed by a line of twelve forts, General Leman, commander of the defence of Liège, transferred his general staff and headquarters to the fort at Loncin in order to put up a resistance. Surprised, the commander of the German infantry had to assemble an army of 100,000 men, while the Liège forts were subjected to intense bombardment from Zeppelins and heavy German artillery. General Leman was captured on 15 August 1914 and the last fort surrendered on the 16th. This resistance earned the city very significant media coverage in the French press, and the Légion d'honneur was awarded to the city of Liège on the 7 August 1914. Liège was occupied for the entire duration of the war. [FL]
- ↑ A note by Anna de Noailles(CG, t. 2, p. 213, note 1) explains that Bernstein was the first to install cork in his apartment to reduce the nuisance of outside noise. (See also CP 03787, note 10; Kolb, XVIII, no. 106). [PK, ChC]
- ↑ Leys, upholsterer-decorator, wood sculptor, Cité du Retiro, 6 bis and 15. Paris-Hachette, 1914, p. 411. [PK]
- ↑ The criss-crossing of horizontal and vertical lines in this note make it difficult to read. In his reply Proust claims not to have been able to decipher "this beautiful arabesque design" apart from the name of "Bernstein" and, after numerous re-readings, "Cité de Retiro" (see CP 03787; Kolb, XVIII, no. 106). [ChC]
- ↑ Translation notes: Reference to the city of Liège is a pun on liège - cork.
- ↑ Contributors: Yorktaylors