Beschreibung:

PROUST, Marcel. Unpublished autograph letter signed to Lucien Daudet ('Mon cher petit'), n.p., n.d. [January 1922] , thanking him for his good wishes [for the New Year] and reflecting on their friendship, 'Nous avons été, je le crois au moins, tellement amis, que ce peu à quoi se sont réduits nos relations me donne toujours quand nous nous voyons l'impression que l'engrenage fonctionne à vide. Si j'étais mieux portant, si je pouvais parler, sortir, recevoir ... peut-être arriverai-je à revenir et à obtenir que tu reviennes au point d'où nous sommes partis pour commencer à nous écarter'. He recalls Alphonse Daudet's prediction about his health. His good wishes for Lucien include the good health of his mother ('fabuleuse de prime jeunesse en ce bal de l'autre soir'), and success in his work, 4 pages, 8vo (annotated in pencil at the head 'Janv. 22', written on pale grey paper). Observing also that Lucien appears to be in good health himself, Proust returns briefly to the style of their earlier correspondence, 'tu es physiquement le même qu'autrefois que je me permets de t'embrasser, mon rat (Lettre fort m.g. pour qui ne saurait que nous ne nous sommes jamais embrassés)'. Proust, despite his frailty, had stayed all night at the New Year's eve ball given by Étienne de Beaumont at which Lucien and Madame Daudet were also guests. The alteration in their friendship was later attributed by Lucien to Proust's becoming a professional writer and, from the end of 1919, a celebrity. In June Lucien visited him for the last time, and wrote in July of his sadness that they could no longer enjoy the remarkable affinity of former times. He received a message from Proust, conveyed by Céleste on the telephone, in October and Proust died on 18 November 1922. There is no published letter from Marcel Proust to Lucien Daudet in the Correspondance for 1922 (Kolb, XXI).