French friendships. Notes on the acquisition by a little Lorrain of the feelings that give a price to life. Paris, Félix Juven, [1903].
In-12 [190 x 122] of (4) ff. the first blank, 270 pp. and (1) f. : half blue cloth, smooth spine decorated, dark blue morocco title, untrimmed, cover preserved (P. Vié - C. Sevin).
First edition.
EXCEPTIONAL SIGNED AUTOGRAPH LETTER ON THE FALSE TITLE: à Marcel Proust // amicalement, // Maurice Barrès
The relationship between Marcel Proust and Maurice Barrès, his elder by nine years and one of the inspirers of the character of Bergotte, was complex; if the Barresian influence is evident in his work, the author of La Recherche strove to distance himself in public, mocking his "love of the poncifix" or denouncing his antidreyfusard nationalism. "All his life Proust prided himself on having resisted Barrès, his icy irony, and for his part Barrès distrusted Proust, displayed his condescension before being reduced to spite, astonished by the novelist's glory in 1921. [The prestige of Barrès will touch with an oblique ray certain Proustian pages" (Anne Henry).
The two writers met in the salon of Anna de Noailles, of whom they were familiar; it was also there, in 1905, that they reconciled after having taken radically opposed positions during the Dreyfus Affair. Barrès attended his funeral, in Saint-Pierre de Chaillot. Speaking to
François Mauriac, he exclaimed: "Yeah..., that was our young man!"
Spine and upper edge of the binding browned.
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