Details
PROUST, Marcel (1871-1922). Autograph letter signed to an unidentified correspondent ('Cher Docteur' i.e. Dr Ladislav Landowski), n.p. [Versailles], 'Jour de l'anniversaire de la mort de Maman' [26 September 1906], 4 pages, 8vo, on mourning paper (split through at horizontal fold).
Proust sends Landowski, for his wife, some small earrings which his mother always wore and recalls her affection for Landowski and his family, and his efforts to save her. 'Voulez-vous nous servir d'interprête, à Robert et a moi, et faire accepter à Madame Landowska ces petites boucles d'oreille qui étaient les boucles d'oreille de Maman. Je ne l'ai pour ainsi dire jamais vue sans elles et il nous serait cruel de nous en séparer si ce n'était pas au contraire une si grande douceur pour nous de penser qu'elles appartiendraient à une femme pour qui Maman avait une sympathie si profonde...Combien Maman aurait été émue de voir les efforts admirables que vous avez fait pour nous la conserver, si elle avait pu s'en rendre compte'. He had wished to bring the gift to Landowski with his brother, but his continuing ill health has prevented him even from attending his uncle's burial, and Robert is extremely busy, so their visit must be postponed.
The death of Proust's mother on 26 September 1905 plunged him into an intense grief and the first anniversary of it was made more painful by the death of her brother, Georges Weil, at the end of August 1906. Proust suffered a severe asthma attack at the station when he was hastening to Paris on learning that his uncle was dying, and several letters around this date explain that he is too unwell or exhausted to go into the city again. He refers in several letters to Madame Catusse to the problem of choosing a fitting gift for Dr Landowski, and in one writes of his own preference for a piece of jewellery designed by himself but which others (presumably his brother, Robert) think unsuitable.
Proust sends Landowski, for his wife, some small earrings which his mother always wore and recalls her affection for Landowski and his family, and his efforts to save her. 'Voulez-vous nous servir d'interprête, à Robert et a moi, et faire accepter à Madame Landowska ces petites boucles d'oreille qui étaient les boucles d'oreille de Maman. Je ne l'ai pour ainsi dire jamais vue sans elles et il nous serait cruel de nous en séparer si ce n'était pas au contraire une si grande douceur pour nous de penser qu'elles appartiendraient à une femme pour qui Maman avait une sympathie si profonde...Combien Maman aurait été émue de voir les efforts admirables que vous avez fait pour nous la conserver, si elle avait pu s'en rendre compte'. He had wished to bring the gift to Landowski with his brother, but his continuing ill health has prevented him even from attending his uncle's burial, and Robert is extremely busy, so their visit must be postponed.
The death of Proust's mother on 26 September 1905 plunged him into an intense grief and the first anniversary of it was made more painful by the death of her brother, Georges Weil, at the end of August 1906. Proust suffered a severe asthma attack at the station when he was hastening to Paris on learning that his uncle was dying, and several letters around this date explain that he is too unwell or exhausted to go into the city again. He refers in several letters to Madame Catusse to the problem of choosing a fitting gift for Dr Landowski, and in one writes of his own preference for a piece of jewellery designed by himself but which others (presumably his brother, Robert) think unsuitable.
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