The collection by Madame de Pierrebourg thrilled Marcel Proust.

Marcel Proust (1871.1922)

Autographed letter signed to Georges de Lauris.

Three and a half pages, quarto. 44 rue Hamelin [circa March 1920]

Kolb, Volume XIX, pages 151-152.

"I am amazed that pain can make a poet."

The publication of the collection by Madame de Pierrebourg (Lauris's mother-in-law) thrilled Proust, who instructed his friend Lauris to inform him.

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"My dear Georges, Just a few words to tell you how sad I am to be too ill to see you, except, very rarely, at unreasonable hours. My health has prevented me so far from writing to Madame de Pierrebourg about her book [La Trace de ses pas, published under the pseudonym Claude Ferval] , which I find admirable. Would you be so kind as to tell her this before I write to her? Plays like the opening play, like the one where she learns the terrible news, like the one addressed to her daughter, and so many others, remain unforgettable. I am astonished that grief can make a poet , to this degree, and precisely not a loose and rambling poet like the one in Le Pélican [allusion to Alfred de Musset ], but with the constriction, the lapidary solidity, of Hervieu. Would you really be so kind as to tell him all this? You would give me great pleasure. And you, my dear Georges, what has become of you 'literarily'?" And how is Madame de Lauris? I send you my warmest regards, Marcel . I believe Madame de Pierrebourg did receive a letter which, through an exchange of my respect and her indulgence, coincided with the sending of her book on the same day.