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Lot n° 233

PROUST Marcel (1871 - 1922)

Estimate :
2 500 - 3 000 EUR

L.A.S. "Marcel Proust", 102 Bd Haussmann [December 1913, to J.H. ROSNY aîné]; 4 pages in-8. Concerning Lucien Daudet's approaches to the Goncourt academicians in favor of Du côté de chez Swann. "Lucien Daudet has taken too much to heart a slanderous rumor to which I had not added faith and which I had made an absurd scruple of sincerity not to keep from him. He took many steps in favor of my book, which prove the adorable generosity of his heart, and which were entirely spontaneous: I hadn't asked him to do any of them. But I certainly didn't regret them, because thanks to them I was able to learn that one of the writers for whom I have the deepest admiration had read my book, had read it with kindness. A testimonial such as the one you are kind enough to give me in your letter is more valuable to me than a prize; I hope you cannot doubt that. If you have found some merit in my book, the merit is I hope of a kind that implied, that presupposed, that required a true understanding of your work, and enough moral distinction to put higher than an academic award, the suffrage of the author of Imperious Goodness. This tells you how delighted I was to receive your letter, and how deeply I am grateful to you, whose sincere and deferential expression I beg you to accept"... Correspondance, t. XII, n° 198. Attached is an early copy of Paul VERLAINE's sonnet, A Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, August 25, 1889 (sold as autograph, Sotheby's Paris May 15, 2012, no. 102).

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