Marcel PROUST mixes his mystical accents with the glory of work.

Marcel Proust (1871.1922)

Autograph letter signed to Georges de Lauris.

Eight pages in-12°.

Slnd [Paris. Sunday November 8, 1908]

Kolb, volume VIII, pages 285-286-87.

“If life brings disappointments we console ourselves because real life is elsewhere, not in life itself, nor afterwards, but outside. »

Long and beautiful letter of life advice, with mystical overtones and the glory of work.

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“My little Georges, I will let you know in a few words what I have not yet told anyone. Having had bronchitis starting in Versailles and the paving of the rue des Réservoirs under my windows, I returned to Paris under the work of the dentist from whom we rented the 3rd ^and literally asphyxiated by a poorly adjusted water heater. As soon as I can get up, I'll run away, I don't know where, but first I'll go see you.

Today closes the Exhibition that of all I would have liked to see, of the two painters with whom I am the most "in love" Greco and Monticelli at the Salon d'Automne and I couldn't go! ^* Before your accident when I didn't think I would return to Paris (it served me well and you were very useful!) I told myself that wherever I was and even if it had been in Venice I would have come back 48 hours to this Exhibition which is perhaps not sublime but which would have been so fruitful for me because it corresponded to such a specific moment of my desire.  And I didn't even have the material possibility of being driven there in a small car, which I would have done without shame.

I think I'm going to get better, I think I'm going to go see you. Georges, when you can: work . Ruskin said somewhere a sublime which must be before your mind every day , when he said that the two great commandments of God (the 2nd ^is almost entirely his but that doesn't matter) were:

“Work while you still have light”

And

“Be merciful while you still have mercy. »

Léon Blum, I swear, never said anything so good. After the 1st ^commandment taken from St John comes this sentence: because soon the night comes when we can no longer do anything (I misquote). I am already, Georges, half in this night despite fleeting appearances which mean nothing. But you, you have the light, you will have it for many years, work . So if life brings disappointments we console ourselves because real life is elsewhere, not in life itself, nor afterwards, but outside , if a term which takes its origin from space has meaning in a world who is freed from it. And the mercy you had better than her, the love so sweet that the death of your poor mother at times does not seem terrible to me when I think of all the hope she left, of all the exactitude with which you fulfilled his wish. As for your life with your father, you know what I think about it and that it is my delight to think about it.

With me you [are] very good if I consult my gratitude, less affectionate than good although you think the opposite, and good with restrictions which are due to your character without serenity. But hey, a thousand times more than I deserve.

Farewell dear Georges, sorry for this evangelical sermon . But accidents like yours, which I constantly picture in my mind, must be a warning. Work since God has left you the Light. No dear Georges, there is no point looking in Léon Blum, or even despite what our friends will swear, in Claude Anet, you will not find anything as good there. This does not prevent Ruskin's works from often being stupid, manic, tense, false, ridiculous, but it is always estimable and always great . As you know, he was greatly admired by George Eliot who, despite what Léon Blum may think, was equal to the Marguerites and, who knows, perhaps the Rosnys and who spoke of "those great works which allow one to reconcile one's despair- even with the delicious feeling of a life located outside of oneself. »

Dear Georges, it is very tiring to write, but it is pleasant to recall beautiful thoughts that he knows to someone who understands them and can draw on them, and who does not esteem the literature of our knowledge more or less famous than at a very relative value. With all my heart to you and currently although coughing endlessly and having a fever, between three windows opened at one o'clock in the morning to fight against the water heater. “All this is not worth love etc. » Your Marcel.

You will tell Lucien Henraux that I love him very much and that I point out to him that all the legends that I sent him two years ago, Forain by friends common to him and me, that is to say by friends of mine and admirers of his, because he has no friends, knew them and took them all. Now Lucien must find them funny and think that I wasn't so stupid to send them to him. But Forain needed a visa for him to appreciate them. »

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^* The exhibition Monticelli, Le Greco, Bresdin, Chifflart, which was held at the Grand Palais des Champs Élysées from October 1 ^to November 8, 1908.