CP 03804/en
Marcel Proust to Robert de Flers [16 June 1919]
(Click on the link above to see this letter and its notes in the Corr-Proust digital edition, including all relevant hyperlinks.)
8bis rue Laurent Pichat[1]
My dear Robert,
If you don't find me too “pre-war” (which I am not at all!) by talking to you about books, I want to speak to you about three volumes of mine which will be published at the end of the week by Editions de la Nouvelle Revue française[2]. Generally, as soon as a book of mine has been published, and before whatever the literary critics of Le Figaro could say, Calmette used to publish a long article at the top of the first page. This is how Lucien Daudet managed to get a three-column article on Du Côté de chez Swann published in Le Figaro[3], which didn’t prevent Chevassu from reviewing it later[4]. It seems to me that this kindness is owed to me even more so this time because, after having announced, thanks to you, that it would publish my series, Le Figaro then refused to do it (without reading it for that matter) due to the high cost of paper[5], despite Bernstein’s efforts. So I think it would be fair compensation this time if Le Figaro doesn’t fail to do for me what it has done in the past. The volumes that are coming out this week are on one hand the continuation to Swann, entitled: “A l’Ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs”, which is the second volume of “A la Recherche du Temps Perdu,” of which “Du Côté de chez Swann” was the first. At the same time a volume of “Pastiches et Mélanges” will appear, and a reprint of “Du Côté de chez Swann.” I wouldn’t dare hope that you would interrupt your magnificent series of studies on Russia, Romania[6], to speak about my books yourself. Among the writers that I think would do it willingly (they have not been told that I had designated them) Louis de Robert, Edmond Jaloux, Francis de Miomandre come to mind. It’s an article that Edmond Rostand wanted to write, that André Gide would write admirably, and certainly with pleasure. I think that Léon Blum would also write it willingly. If it does not seem feasible to you at the moment to write an entire article in the newspaper, I would resign myself to a "snapshot"[7]. I think that very few people could do it as well as Robert Dreyfus, who knows me so well. Excuse me for repeating myself and the incoherence of this letter. The state of my health has been deteriorating for some time, and has become deplorable since the house I lived in was transformed into a bank, and I was forced to move. I rented, at least provisionally, a property of Madame Réjane's[8], and the neighbourhood near the Bois explains my worsening asthma, which has progressed from mild attacks to more serious ones. I did not tell anyone of my new address so that they would not interrupt the little rest, if any, that I am getting. That is to say, I trust your discretion if you were asked where I live.
Believe, my dear Robert, in my profound friendship and admiration
Marcel Proust
Notes
- ↑ This letter must date from [Monday 16 June 1919], the moment Proust learned that his three books were going to come out "at the end of the week." See note 2 below. [PK]
- ↑ Proust received the information in a letter addressed to him by Gustave Tronche on Sunday 15 June 1919: "your books will be in all the bookshops in Paris at the end of the week" (CP 03802; Kolb, XVIII, no. 121). [PK, FP]
- ↑ Lucien Daudet, "Du côté de chez Swann," Le Figaro, 27 November 1913, p. 1. [PK, FP]
- ↑ Francis Chevassu, "La Vie littéraire : À la recherche du temps perdu, par Marcel Proust; Le Peuple de la mer, par Marc Elder," Le Figaro, 8 December 1913, p. 4. [PK, FP]
- ↑ Alfred Capus refused to publish Proust's serialization in September 1918: see Proust's letter to Lionel Hauser of 15 September [1918] (CP 03588; Kolb, XVII, no. 148). [PK, FP]
- ↑ Allusion to the articles by Robert de Flers that had recently appeared on the front of the Figaro, notably, on the 5th and 6th May 1919, “Les Marionnettes de Berlin,” on the 16th of May “La Route du pain,” on the 21st May “Ne pleurons pas ou la route de Bucarest a Versailles,” on the 5th of June “Pour les moindres puissances: La Petite Table.” There was another one on the 27th of June, not yet published when Proust wrote, entitled “Pour les moindres puissances: La Barrière.” [PK, FP]
- ↑ This was the solution that Robert de Flers was going to propose in his letter in reply to Proust of [2 or 3 July 1919] (CP 03836; Kolb, XVIII, no. 155). [PK]
- ↑ Proust left 102 Boulevard Haussmann for 8bis rue Laurent-Pichat about 31 May. He stayed there until 1st October. [CSz]
- ↑ Translation notes:
- ↑ Contributors: Cbrennan, Yorktaylors