Madame de Pierrebourg's collection excites Marcel PROUST.

Marcel Proust (1871.1922)

Autograph letter signed to Georges de Lauris.

Three ½ in-4° pages. 44 rue Hamelin [around 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' mother-in-law) excited Proust who asked his friend Lauris to let him know.

__________________________________________________________

“My little Georges, Two words to tell you my sadness at being too unwell to see you, except, very rarely, at odd hours. My state of health has until now prevented me from writing to Madame de Pierrebourg for her book [La Trace de ses pas, published under the pseudonym Claude Ferval] which I find admirable. Will you tell him while waiting for me to write to him. Pieces like the opening piece, like the one where she learns the terrible news, like the one to her daughter, and so many others, remain unforgettable. I am amazed that pain can make a poet , to this degree, and precisely not a loose and diffuse poet like that of the Pelican [allusion to Alfred de Musset ], but with the constriction, the lapidary solidity, of Hervieu . Do you really want to tell him all that? You would make me very happy. And you, my little Georges, what is becoming of you “literally”? And how is Madame de Lauris? I kiss you tenderly, Marcel . I think that Madame de Pierrebourg did receive a letter which, through an exchange of my respect and her indulgence, coincided on the same day with the sending of her volume. »