Beschreibung:

PROUST, Marcel (1871-1922). One unpublished autograph letter signed, and two unpublished autograph letters (both incomplete), to Lucien Daudet, all n.p. [Paris], n.d. [August and September 1920] , in the first ( incomplete ) praising Lucien's new work and saying that he wrote to [Jacques] Rivière about having it reviewed, and with further details of his efforts for Lucien; referring to his own work, Le Temps Retrouvé , and to his remarks about old age in it, which, since it was written six years earlier, cannot be a pastiche of Lucien's; and praising Lucien's lines on love, compared to which Sully Prud'homme's [which he quotes] are nothing; he has no time to correct his volumes but one is ready, 8 pages, 8vo (lacking final page); the second, clearing up several misunderstandings about his efforts to have Lucien's work reviewed through Rivière and describing various incidents [at the Nouvelle Revue Française ] to give him an idea of it ('pour te donner une idée de la Régle de ce cloître étrange'), complaining that Mrs. Standish had not acknowledged his pastiche 'qui est probablement la seule chose qu'on ait écrit sur elle', and saying Céleste used to watch everything she did from the kitchen window; declaring that they are almost alone in having good taste in literature, and hoping that the 'bonnes feuilles' have arrived, 8 pages, 8vo ; the third ( incomplete ) acknowledging a letter and while sorry about Rivière's article defending him ('ce héros et martyre') and reminding him of Rivière's sufferings in the war; continuing on the same theme, 4 pages, 8vo (lacking final page; altogether 20 pages, 8vo . The lot also includes an autograph leaf [ n.d. ] from a journal describing a dinner with the Daudets at which Lucien talked about the Rothschilds especially the eldest and richest of all, named Alphonse, who would be an interesting subject for a novel, 'pour l'artiste qui oserait le vrai roman de ce temps-ci, Le Roman de l'Argent', one page, 115 x 180mm (torn from a bifolium); and an autograph note recording what the Empress Eugénie told Lucien about the Emperor's astonishment on finding his minister of war reading Renée Mauperin [Edmond de Goncourt's novel, published 1864], 4 pages, 8vo (cancellations, tear in centre fold); together with transcripts of the 3 letters including the full text of the 3rd, perhaps made for Lucien Daudet with a view to publication. Proust had asked Gallimard for 'bonnes feuilles' [advance proofs] for members of the Daudet family in a letter of 14 September 1920 (Kolb, XIX, 442), also referring to Jacques Rivière, the editor of the Nouvelle Revue Française . Rivière wrote to Proust on 8 August, saying that he would be delighted to read Lucien Daudet's book [ Évidences ]. Proust's intervention with Rivière was successful and Évidences was flatteringly reviewed in December 1920. Mrs. Standish, once the mistress of Edward VIII, was Proust's neighbour in the Rue Hamelin (Kolb, XIX, 649). (8)