Marcel PROUST writes to the Countess of Lauris.

Marcel Proust (1871.1922)

Autograph letter signed to Madeleine Marie Alice Harty de Pierrebourg, Countess of Lauris, wife of Georges.

Seven pages in-8°. Autograph envelope. July 10, 1912

Kolb, Volume XI, pages 158 et seq.

“I am not writing to my dear Georges, since the good Lord has arranged things so badly. »

This is the only known letter from Proust to the Countess de Lauris.

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“Madam, I cannot tell you how much emotion and joy your letter caused me . And I am deeply grateful to you. I had made the project, and more, long preparations to go see you and thank you later. And then I couldn't leave until 7 o'clock in the evening. And it was too late. As I am writing to you (which will not prevent me one day from going to see you if I can) so as not to get tired, I am not writing to my dear Georges, since the good Lord has arranged things so badly that it can still be tiring to pour one's thoughts into the thought that one would have chosen above all for that purpose. But tell him that there must have been a misunderstanding between us, because this year, at least in recent times, if my health has become worse and a cause at the moment of quite serious concern, on the other hand I have could - and this is perhaps a bad thing - slightly improve my hours and even go out more, so that it would have been possible for me rarely but sometimes to receive him in the evening, if he had this sign that I I often waited. And above all, he does not imagine that this hides a reproach. Because if anyone deserves it, it is certainly me from whom prolonged suffering has ended up taking away not the vivacity of affections but perhaps a little vigilance and zeal.

I would not want to tire you with a longer letter when I have already abused your album so indiscreetly. But I still wanted to tell you that I felt remorse for a lack of tact. I suddenly remembered that you were linked to the Marquis de Ségur. And perhaps the little criticism I made of a sentence from him (although natural in the inevitably spiteful pen of Goncourt who is supposed to speak) may have been unpleasant to you. I would be desperate to be the cause of a painful feeling for you, however slightly it may be. And in this case I ask you to act as you wish with this pastiche and to erase anything that might displease you. This prospect of collaboration with you can only enchant me. Don't answer me and do as you wish.

As for the title of count given to Monsieur de Ségur, it is not to refer to the time when Goncourt lived, but because it was always as inaccurate as it was meticulous. In her diary M ^e de Beaulaincourt is the Marquise (or the Baroness I don't know anymore but everything except what she was) de Beaulaincourt. Montesquiou is once a duke, once a count etc. Would you like to share between Madam your mother, you and Georges my truly deep of attachment in the most exact sense of the word ; of admiration, of recognition, adding respectful homage for Madam, your mother and for you, which for Georges means “neither sex nor age”. Marcel Proust "

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Georges de Lauris, friend and confidant of Proust, married Madeleine on October 26, 1910. The latter was the daughter of Madame de Pierrebourg, a writer under the name Claude Ferval, and also a regular literary correspondent of the author of La Recherche .