Beschreibung:

PROUST, Marcel. Three autograph letters signed to Lucien Daudet, all n.p. [Paris], the 1st (including 33 unpublished lines) n.d. [7 March 1915], the 2nd and 3rd n.d. [8 March 1915] , in all of them denying vehemently remarks attributed to him by Princess Lucien Murat about being too preoccupied by the Caillaux affair to have time to think about the war; in the first writing 'Si vous voyez la Princesse Lucien Murat à qui je trouve excessif d'écrire pour ceci, voulez-vous démentir ce qui me désole. Elle a dit parait-il que quand on me parlait de la Guerre je répondais "Quelle Guerre? Je n'ai pas encore eu le temps d'y penser. J'étudie en ce moment l'affaire Caillaux". Je ne me suis jamais occupé de l'affaire Caillaux, ne connaissant les Caillaux et ayant toujours eu pour eux une si instinctive antipathie que j'ai refusé un dîner Clermont-Tonnerre ... rien que pour ne pas les rencontrer ... Je n'ai donc jamais dit à personne que j'étudiais l'affaire Caillaux. Ce n'est pas seulement inexacte, c'est une invention absurde. Quant à l'autre partie du propos c'est plus insensé encore. J'ai toutes les raisons du monde hélas de n'avoir pas cessé une minute de penser à la guerre depuis la veille de mobilisation', and wondering who reported him as having made such a remark; also ( in an unpublished opening passage of approximately 33 lines ) discoursing on various titled families and the 'Balzacien' twists in their relationships; recalling an incident during the Dreyfus affair, referring to a misunderstanding by Lucien of something Proust said to him ('la fausse interpretation que vous m'avez donnée à une plaisanterie'), and referring in a postscript to Madame Daudet's health, 8 pages, 8vo ; in the second letter (a hurried note) 'Je vous ai écrit une lettre stupide', saying that if it is not too late he should say nothing to Princess Murat; no one could believe he would have made such absurd remarks and his informant might be embarrassed; and he is in tears as it is being said now that Fénélon may not be a prisoner, and the uncertainty is frightful, one page, 8vo (integral leaf torn away); and in the third, having just received Lucien's moving letter, but correcting Lucien's reading of his own earlier letter because it is all fabrication and he said nothing about the Caillaux affair, except to Lucien when he deplored that his brother had been called as a witness; he should himself have tried to be called as a friend of Calmette's; and 'Pour l'incident Murat', Lucien will know if it is better to put it right or not, also asking Lucien how he heard about it, 4 pages, 8vo , with a note at the head, 'Cette lettre écrite après la feuille dechirée'; altogether 3 letters, 13 pages, 8vo The Caillaux affaire was a cause célèbre . Joseph Caillaux, the Germanophile Minister of Finance, had been the object of a ruthless campaign in Le Figaro by Gaston Calmette (to whom Proust had dedicated Du Côté de chez Swann ). Madame Caillaux called at Calmette's office and shot him dead in February 1914. Princess Lucien Murat was the former Marie d'Elchingen, and the pretentions of the Murats, ever mindful of their brief season of royalty during the First Empire, provided Proust with material for his Saint-Simon pastiche (in Pastiches et Mélanges , 1919). In the unpublished passage at the beginning of the letter of 7 March, Proust refers to the Chaumont-Guitry, the Saint-Pauls, the Beaumonts and others, being amused by a link to Madame Straus which must now be denied, and mentions also Monsieur de [?] Lub who has been such a pillar of Judaism that he was attacked by Drumont to whom he sent an insolent reply. Proust had often attended the eclectic salon of Madame Géneviève Straus, and she always preserved her place in his affections. As well as suppressing this passage, Lucien Daudet suppressed the identity of Princess Lucien Murat. Kolb, XIV, 66, 67, 68; Cahiers , V (XX, XXII and page 140). (3)