Marcel PROUST - "The prospect of being interned..."

Marcel Proust (1871.1922)

Autograph letter signed to Max Daireaux

Seven pages in-12°. (Paris. May 1909)

Reference: Kolb, IX, n°43.

“Have you received the letter where I sent you idiotic and obscene verses from Cabourg. Hopefully these horrors are not lost! »

My dear friend, I will be happy to pass on some of your fantasies to Le Figaro if I can and I thank you for giving me this pleasure. I am perhaps the man least suited for this, barely getting up once a month. And vis-à-vis all of Paris (that is to say the five or six people I know) I am in such a difficult situation that at times the prospect of being interned in a nursing home appears to me. as a “solution” that would at least cut short the excuses. This is telling you that to send these fantasies I would have to precede my letter with countless “I don’t know what you must think etc” suggesting that your fantasies are the only point that connects me to existence. But my friends are merciful and will be kind. The downside is not being there. The useful man is the one who has your fantasy in his pocket a few evenings in a row. Then at a time when Fauré had not sent his article, he took it out and had it inserted. After five or six times you are “in the house” and doing it yourself. In this respect Caillavet, whom I believe you know, has the advantage over me (among a thousand others) of being "from Figaro" and of being able to do what I am telling you here. As for Chevassu, he is the director of the Supplement. That is to say, I am next to him almost like a flea next to the Eiffel Tower . Nevertheless, in this capacity as a flea, I jump with joy at the opportunity to show you my zeal and will do everything possible to have your fantasies included and transform this accidental collaboration into a definitive one. But I remember the time when I brought articles to Cardane and when each time a new news forced him to say to me with a desperate air: “Alas dear friend, you understand well don't you that with this affair from Morocco, we cannot insert your beautiful article. There is a plethora. » (…) Cardane was more and more desperate. Alas, this excellent man died, died before me, which seemed against the odds. Did you receive the letter where I sent you idiotic and obscene verses from Cabourg. Hopefully these horrors are not lost! Ask me whenever you want for a box for the Arts Theater. And send me a “fantasy” whenever you want. The ones I read in Comedia were very witty. Thank you for sending them to me and with all my heart. Marcel Proust. If you want to call one evening by chance, you have very little chance that I will be visible, even that I will be awake. But anyway, if you have the telephone you can try (29205) but I warn you that I will be in bed when you see me because I don't get up once a month .

Proust met the young Max Daireaux (1884-1954) in Cabourg in 1908. Often playful and amusing, Proust's letters show him both eager to please the young man he wants to introduce to Le Figaro and distressed at not receiving his visits. Over time, Proust becomes less sensitive to the distance that the young writer places between them, although nostalgic for their days spent in Cabourg. He advises him on his writings and tells amusing anecdotes which inspired certain passages of the Research .