Marcel PROUST deeply sorry for the suffering of his friend.

Marcel Proust (1871.1922

Autograph letter signed to Georges de Lauris.

Three pages in-12° on mourning paper.

Tuesday, [September 1906]

Kolb, Volume VI, pages 219-220.

"Life is so awful that we should all end up there". »

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"My dear Georges, your letter yesterday filled me with despair. I sent word to inquire about you (unlike in Paris!), but in the meantime, you wrote to me. Perhaps by the time I write to you, the suffering has subsided. But I don't know. I won't know anything more until tomorrow morning. And what a sad night I will have! If only the calculation could be resolved, if only this horrible suffering could have been effective and fruitful. Alas, I dare not hope. It's barbaric to say 'hope' when one thinks of the heartbreak that expulsion would cause your mother. But afterwards, what physical and moral relief! No more fear of intervention. It's too good to be true. I dare not hope for so much." But I wish that, as I write to you, I could tell myself that your mother is no longer suffering so much, that she is at rest, not dependent on so much morphine, is not discouraged, that you no longer have those anguished eyes, but your beautiful smiling face, that your father is reassured. Alas, what a cruel life you have, and if you only knew how much I suffer from it, that I am constantly reaching out to you, dear Georges. What ravishing joy it will be when your mother is freed from this ordeal. I never asked you if your mother was pious, if she found solace in prayer. Life is so dreadful that we should all end up that way . Alas, wanting it isn't enough. Farewell, Georges, I feel almost indiscreet in being so sad, as if I were taking a place in your family where I am not invited. Yours truly, Marcel.