Translations:CP 03862/5/en
When for so long I have had some very helpful things to write to you (it requires being in a state close to death for me to have not yet written to you all that I think about your admirable novel[1], so that the booklet you were so kind to lend me[2] is still next to my bed, not being able to find the first editions of my books that I have been searching for in vain for a few weeks (the editions hoarded by an unknown bookstore), and I am still not resigned to send you the more ordinary editions but which at least allow you to read my work if you would like) I must tell you this evening how much I disapprove of your manifesto in Le Figaro[3]. Disapproval of a manifesto, is vanity still larger than the manifesto itself. The certain excuse of this is that it responds, you say, to another “bolshevist” manifesto[4]. I have not read the first, I do not know where one can find it and I do not doubt that it is not absurd.