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=[http://www.corr-proust.org/letter/05635 Marcel Proust à Berthe Lemarié <nowiki>[le 20 ou 21 avril 1918]</nowiki>]=  
=[http://www.corr-proust.org/letter/05635 Marcel Proust to Berthe Lemarié <nowiki>[20 or 21 April 1918]</nowiki>]=  
<small>(Click on the link above to see this letter and its notes in the ''Corr-Proust'' digital edition, including all relevant hyperlinks.)</small>
<small>(Click on the link above to see this letter and its notes in the ''Corr-Proust'' digital edition, including all relevant hyperlinks.)</small>


Latest revision as of 00:33, 7 July 2022


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Marcel Proust to Berthe Lemarié [20 or 21 April 1918]

(Click on the link above to see this letter and its notes in the Corr-Proust digital edition, including all relevant hyperlinks.)

[1]

Dear Madame

To avoid wasting time I am sending you the first 244 pages of proofs (combining galley, second and third proof revisions) of “À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs”[2]. I don’t have pages 245 and on (which I believe comprise the episode with M. de Charlus); I am waiting for the editor[3] to send them back to me. As soon as I have them, as well as the end of the “violet exercise book” (which is simply the end of À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs), I will send them to you, similarly combining galley proof revisions, etc., everything between page 244 and the end of the volume[4].

Let me tell you without boring you too much about the extraordinary things that occurred during this round of editing[5]:

Firstly, there is a whole large sheet of manuscript pages, so wondrously pieced together by your typist, that was completely left out, which means it was never printed! To avoid requesting separate proofs, I will send it to you in manuscript form instead in the middle of the violet exercise book. But ultimately that means at least ten pages of proofs are missing[6]! We haven’t even got to the missing sentences and words!

Unfortunately, we are still dealing with missing sentences and words, etc. Based on the tiredness in my eyes, I can’t convey to you how much additional work is required not having complete faith in the proof. I do, however, despite all the errors. But here is something that is quite odd and that I am telling you in full confidence. I had thought up until now that the transcribers responsible for this work were rather clueless and regularly made errors for that reason (I could give you 100 examples). It was to my great surprise to see that the word ‘gluant’ [sticky] had been replaced by the word ‘visqueux’ [gooey] in the latest proofs. I find it astounding while shameless and uncultured at the same time. When rereading a rather well flowing sentence, in order to avoid referring back to your typist’s manuscript, it just so happened that I was taken aback by the word ‘visqueux,' which I didn’t think I put there. Given it isn’t a recent proof, as they are galley proofs (so from a manuscript that I hadn’t reread for a while), I compared the printed galley proof with the manuscript pieced together by your typist, which didn’t have ‘visqueux’ but ‘gluant’[7]. Do these trivialities give you an idea of the troubles I’ve been having with this volume? Alas, it’s shameful to talk about oneself, books and printing while so many suffer. Despite your youthful appearance, you have a grown-up son; I would be grateful to know if you have any good news from him, or whether he is out of danger[8]. We tremble for all our own and I am thinking about you both with all my heart.

Is Gaston Gallimard returning? I have been told that my friend Guiche has returned. Perhaps they took the same ship? Given I haven’t been well enough to see Guiche, I wouldn’t know[9].

Please accept my most respectful regards, dear Madame.

Marcel Proust

[10] [11]

Notes

  1. ↑ This letter immediately precedes the incomplete letter of [just before 22 April 1918] (CP 03517; Kolb, XVII, no. 77 ; MP-GG, no. 56) in which Proust asks again for news about Gaston Gallimard and Madame Lemarié’s son. As Madame Lemarié sends her response on Monday 22 April (CP 04460; MP-GG, no. 57), this letter must be dated [Saturday 20 or Sunday 21 April 1918]. [CSz]
  2. ↑ In a letter to the same recipient from [just before 8 April 1918] (CP 03524; Kolb, XVII, no. 84 ; MP-GG, no. 54) Proust confirmed that he hadn’t received the section relating to Monsieur de Charlus or the end of the text, which hadn’t yet been made available in galley proof form. (Philip Kolb had initially dated the letter in question [beginning of April 1918]. After the publication of the MP-GG volume, in which Pascal Fouché suggests the date of [beginning of April 1918] for this letter, Kolb corrected the date of this letter as [just before 8 April 1918] in his personal copy. We follow this correction.) — These “first 244 pages” relate to the third series which contains the third proofs of “Mme Swann” and the second proofs of “Balbec 1”. The reason behind the difference in 26 pages between the number announced here by Proust and the receipt by Madame Lemarié of '270 pages' (CP 04460; MP-GG, no. 57) may be found in the missing opening part of the following letter (CP 03517; Kolb, XVII, no. 77, MP-GG, no. 56). See Francine Goujon, "Les épreuves de ‘À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs’: deux lettres à redater", BMP, no. 48, 1998, p. 42-48, and specifically the summary table of the various proof series, p. 47. [CSz]

  3. ↑ This refers to the printer. It refers to the company La Semeuse, based at Étampes, according to the response by Madame Lemarié: “[...] and I can definitely tell you that La Semeuse is still the most competent" (CP 04460; MP-GG, no. 57). [CSz]
  4. ↑ Gallimard acknowledges receipt of these pages on 14 June 1918 (CP 05453; MP-GG, no. 62). [CSz]
  5. ↑ See the response from Madame Lemarié to Proust from 22 April 1918 (CP 04460; MP-GG, no. 57) : “Nothing surprises me about errors at the printer; but believe me, kind sir, I think they are all the same.” [CSz]
  6. ↑ The “violet exercise book proofs” that Proust had received in January 1918 (CP 04457; MP-GG, no. 51), except for all the final pages (CP 03524; Kolb, XVII, no. 84 ; MP-GG, no. 54) starting at page 289 of proofs held at the BnF (Réserve des livres rares, RESM-Y2-824). The passage that hadn’t been included is certainly that which figures today in the form of a typewritten insert at pages 378 to 388. — In a postscript to the current letter which is no longer available, Proust must have been aware that it was preferable to attach the “large sheet” forgotten by the transcribers in typewritten form, as in her response Madame Lemarié assures him that she is “searching for a typist” (CP 04460; MP-GG, no. 57). This insert relates to the content featured on plates 23 and 24 of the “violet exercise book”, which also confirms the reference, in the current letter, to the “pieced together manuscript pages” by the “typist.” (see Yasué Kato, “Les goûters sur la falaise. Montage de l'histoire des jeunes filles pendant les années 1914-1918”, BIP, no. 45, 2015, p. 61-74). [CSz]

  7. ↑ See RTP, II, 278: “les merveilleuses ombres abritées et furtives, agiles et silencieuses, prêtes, au premier remous de lumière, […] à revenir auprès de la roche ou de l’algue dont, sous le soleil émietteur des falaises et de l’océan décoloré, elles semblent veiller l’assoupissement, gardiennes immobiles et légères, laissant paraître à fleur d’eau leur corps gluant […]” (“The marvellous shadows, sheltered and hidden, agile while silent, ready, for the first shine of light, […] to return to the rocks and the seaweed from which, under the sun that crumbles cliffs and fades oceans, they seem to survey the drowsiness, like motionless and weak guardians, allowing their sticky bodies to appear on the water’s surface […]”); but variant a. (p. 1472 of this same volume) and the transcription of the Gallimard proof (BnF, Réserve des livres rares, RESM-Y2-824, p. 410) read “leurs corps visqueux" [their gooey bodies]. — The passage should feature on sheet “no. 27” of the “violet exercise book”; this sheet hasn’t been located to date: see Pyra Wise, “À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs, le manuscrit dispersé de l'édition de luxe. État des lieux d'un centenaire”, BIP, no. 50, 2020, p. 43-56. The table listing the “violet exercise book” sheets (p. 48-49) suggests that sheet “no. 28” contains a passage relating to RTP, II, 278-280, but this passage starts further down, at the paragraph “During all this return, Albertine’s image […]”, according to P. Wise’s transcription. [CSz]
  8. ↑ See Madame Lemarié’s response (CP 04460; MP-GG, no. 57). Her son had been stationed at an Aircraft Inspection Department since his injury. His first name is Jean and he is older than 20 at the end of 1918, as Proust writes to Gaston Gallimard on [7 November 1918]. “Even the less remarkable feats of mythology seem to pale in comparison to the fact that she has a son of more than 20 years old, therefore she’s much older than she appears.” (CP 03626; Kolb, XVII, no. 186; MP-GG, no. 83; Lettres, no. 479). [CSz]

  9. ↑ Gallimard embarks from New York on 8 May 1918 and arrives in France in mid-May. (CP 04458 and CP 04460; MP-GG, no. 52 and no. 57, note 2). Therefore, he did not take the same ship as the duc de Guiche who had been in France since the end of April: see Proust’s letter to the duc de Guiche on [Saturday evening 27 April 1918] (CP 03522; Kolb, XVII, no. 82). [CSz]
  10. ↑ Translation notes:
  11. ↑ Contributors: Clang
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