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 octavo pages. Autographed envelope. July 10, 1912

Kolb, Volume XI, pages 158 and following.

"I am not writing to my dear Georges, since God has arranged things so badly."

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

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“Madam, I cannot tell you how much emotion and joy your letter caused me . And I am deeply grateful. I had planned, and even made lengthy preparations, to come and see you and thank you soon. But then I could only leave at 7 o'clock in the evening. And that was too late. Since I am writing to you (which will not prevent me from coming to see you one day if I can) so as not to tire myself, I am not writing to my dear Georges, since God has arranged things so badly that it can be tiring even to pour one's thoughts into the thought one has chosen above all others for this purpose.” But tell him there must have been a misunderstanding between us, because this year, at least recently, while my health has worsened and is currently a cause for rather serious concern, on the other hand I have been able—and this is perhaps a misfortune—to slightly improve my hours and even go out more, so that it would have been possible, though rarely, to receive him in the evening, had he given me that sign I have often awaited. And above all, let him not imagine that this conceals a reproach. For if anyone deserves one, it is certainly me, from whom prolonged suffering has finally deprived not the intensity of my affections, but perhaps a little vigilance and zeal.

I wouldn't want to burden you with another long letter when I've already so indiscreetly taken advantage of your album. But I wanted to tell you again that I felt remorse for a lack of tact. I suddenly remembered that you were acquainted with the Marquis de Ségur. And perhaps the slight criticism I made of one of his sentences (though natural coming from the inevitably resentful pen of Goncourt, who is supposed to be speaking) may have been unpleasant to you. I would be devastated to cause you any distress, however slight. And in that case, I ask you to do as you please with this pastiche and remove anything that might displease you. This prospect of collaborating with you can only delight me. Above all, don't reply and do as you wish.

As for the title of Count given to Monsieur de Ségur, it's not to refer back to the time when Goncourt lived, but because he was always as inaccurate as he was meticulous. In his journal, Madame ^de Beaulaincourt is the Marquise (or the Baroness, I no longer remember, but everything except what she was) de Beaulaincourt. Montesquiou is sometimes a Duke, sometimes a Count, etc. Would you like to share between your mother, yourself, and Georges my truly profound of attachment in the truest sense of the word ; of admiration, of gratitude, adding to this, for your mother and for you, respectful homages that Georges is not bound by "sex or age"? Marcel Proust

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Georges de Lauris, Proust's friend and confidant, married Madeleine on October 26, 1910. She was the daughter of Madame de Pierrebourg, a writer under the name Claude Ferval, and also a regular literary correspondent of the author of In Search of Lost Time.