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Marcel-Valentin- Louis-Eugène-Georges PROUST
Premières épreuves de Du côté de chez Swann Le jeu perdu des placards corrigés
Placards numérotés 1-29 ( première partie: "Combray") et 29-52 (deuxième partie: "Un amour de Swann"), abondamment révisés par l'auteur et renvoyés à l'éditeur, avec des repentirs sur béquets et paperoles
De Les intermittences du coeur à A la recherche du temps perdu
De Le temps perdu via Charles Swann à Du côté de chez Swann
Entre Mayenne et Paris Du 31 mars au 14 mai 1913
"Je suis en train de corriger mes premières épreuves ... Mes corrections jusqu'ici ... ne sont pas des corrections. Il ne reste pas une ligne sur 20 du texte primitif ... c'est rayé, corrigé dans toutes les parties blanches que je peux trouver, et je colle des papiers en haut, en bas, à droite, à gauche ..." (lettre à Vaudoyer 12-iv-1913, le jour de la correction du placard 15)
" En réalité le texte n'est pas extrêmement changé, car tout ce que j'ai ajouté, je l'ai généralement rebiffé ensuite. Mais il en résulte sinon un changement de dimensions ... du moins un inextricable gâchis qui va donner à vos ouvriers une peine dont je suis désolé et confus ..." (lettre à Grasset 19-iv-1913, lors de la correction du placard 20)
73.
PROUST, Marcel (Auteuil 1871-1922 Paris). Extensively revised galley first proofs of "Combray" and "Un amour de Swann", the first (complete) and second (almost complete) parts of A la recherche du temps perdu: Du côté de chez Swann. Mayenne: Charles Colin [for Marcel Proust and Bernard Grasset (Paris)], 31 March - 14 May 1913 (printer's date-stamps).
52 oblong broadsheets (380 x 555mm), galleys numbered 1-52 (placards or "planches"), printed on one side, each divided in 8 typographical columns (139 x 86mm) of 37 lines. At least two stocks of wove proof paper, roman type (75mm). ELABORATE AUTOGRAPH CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS IN INK THROUGHOUT, 28 sheets with a total of 45 paste-ons (béquets) and multiple continuous paste-ons (paperoles); more than a dozen columns or partial columns cut out and transferred to the same, neighbouring or distant galley sheets; five sheets constructed from two sets.
CONDITION: Lacking half of sheet 50 (columns 5-8) and full galley sheets 53-95 (the last column of "Un amour de Swann"; all of "Noms de pays", of which sheets 53-59 and 74-75 were published as the novel's short third part "Noms de pays: Le Nom" and the others remained unpublished until their text was reworked to form the first part "Autour de Mme Swann" of the second novel A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs [NRF, 1918]). Paste-on at pl. 52 defective (with loss of text), some small holes, cuts, slight separation at several folds, traces of glue, minor discolouration, a few small stains, and two short marginal tears in sheet 13, but THE FRAGILE SHEETS AND PASTE-ONS ARE EXTREMELY WELL-PRESERVED, some even in fresh condition.
BINDING: The galley sheets have been very skilfully mounted -- most at the edges only -- into a large oblong modern album of thick white paper, bound in fine French gold-tooled brown morocco à la bradel, signed Leca, with matching slipcase.
PROVENANCE: Marcel Proust, bequeathed with the rest of his literary archive to his younger brother -- Dr Robert Proust (1873-1935) -- separated from the archive by Dr Proust's widow, Marthe Dubois-Amyot, as were some other important papers and objects at that time (the main archive was acquired in 1962 by the Bibliothèque nationale from Dr Proust's daughter, Suzy Mante, who had previously offered it to the Pierpont Morgan Library, Harvard University Library, and the University of Texas Library; the latter had agreed to purchase when the BN intervened) -- private collections (binding).
THE DISCOVERY OF THIS LONG-LOST SET OF CORRECTED GALLEY PROOFS REVEALS A CRUCIAL STAGE IN THE CREATIVE PROCESS OF THE GREATEST FRENCH NOVEL OF THE 20TH CENTURY. It was unkown to the editors of the latest Pléiade text (1987) and no future critical edition of the work may omit close study of the extensive autograph revisions.
THESE SHEETS CONTAIN THE MOST IMPORTANT AUTOGRAPH WORKING MANUSCRIPT OF PROUST LEFT IN PRIVATE HANDS AND NOTHING OF COMPARABLE LITERARY SIGNIFICANCE AND LENGTH, RELATING TO HIS IMMORTAL NOVEL, WILL EVER AGAIN APPEAR ON THE MARKET. Fifty copies of the special edition (NRF, 1920) of A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs were each provided with one or two galley sheets or fragments of manuscripts, but dispersed as they are, cannot form a coherent whole. For the rest, practically all the notebooks, holograph manuscripts, typescripts and proofs are now located in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (their most recent acquisitions -- from two different sources -- dating from 1977 and 1984).
In Search of Lost Time has roots that go back as far as the unfinished and unpublished (until 1952) novel Jean Santeuil, on which Proust worked intermittently from 1895 to 1900. However, its origins are manifest in his relatively finished but also unpublished (until 1954) novel Contre Sainte-Beuve, on which he worked during most of 1908 and 1909. At that time, the conception of a great and complicated novel begins to form in his mind and find its way into his notebooks (cahiers). In 1909-1910 he is definitely at work on "Combray", "Un amour de Swann" [Swann in Love] and "Noms de pays" [Place Names], the three parts of what will become Du côté de chez Swann [Swann's Way] and the first chapter "Autour de Mme Swann" [Madame Swann at Home] of A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs [Within a Budding Grove], the first two of seven novels in the eventual cycle of A la recherche du temps perdu ["Remembrance of Things Past", to quote Scott Moncrieff's title so detested by Nabokov].
As Proust's novel of involuntary memory, the unconscious, creativity, love, society, art and music, circulates at this early stage in various forms (manuscript, typescript, extracts serialised in Le Figaro [its editor, Gaston Calmette, is the dedicatee of Du côté de chez Swann]) among friends, writers and editors, it meets with widely differing responses of extreme admiration, indifference and negative criticism. Proust begins to look for a publisher in 1912, variously speaking of and planning his work in two or three volumes. After rejections from Eugène Fasquelle, André Gide for Gallimard's Nouvelle Revue Française, and Alfred Humblot for Paul Ollendorf ["je ne puis comprendre qu'un Monsieur puisse employer trente pages à décrire comment il se tourne et se retourne dans son lit, avant de trouver le sommeil"], the author decides to publish at his own expense despite Louis de Robert's warning that vanity publication might ruin his reputation as a serious writer. At the suggestion of René Blum, he contacts the young and dynamic publisher Bernard Grasset. On 11 March 1913 a contract is signed and Proust makes a first payment towards the printing costs. Then begin the exhausting and exhaustive process of correcting proofs, to the point of rewriting large sections of text, and a constant shuttle of manuscript and printed sheets between author and publisher in Paris and Charles Colin's press at Mayenne (half-way between Alençon and Rennes).
Colin set the text of Swann's Way from copy typed by Cecilia Hayward of the Grand-Hôtel at Cabourg, who worked from a manuscript prepared by the author's friend and secretary, Albert Nahmias. Grasset provided Proust with three sets of identical galley proofs to make his corrections. The first sheet arrived in three copies on 31st March 1913, sheets 2 and 3 on 1st April, and subsequent sheets at an average rate of more than one a day. Proust immediately set to work, writing to Vaudoyen on 12th April: "I am busily correcting my first proofs. New galleys arrive every day, but I have not returned a single one yet ... My corrections so far (I hope that this will not go on) are more than just that. Not one line in twenty remains of the original text ... It is crossed out, corrected wherever I can find a blank space, and I paste on pieces of paper at the top, bottom, left, right, etc." He warned Grasset about the fragility of the sheets and the complications that would result if the paste-ons tore off; he continued: "There are galleys that may seem to be half-missing. This is because I have transferred a passage elsewhere."
The extent and method of revision described are borne out by this rediscovered corrected first proof in galleys (premières épreuves en placards), which constitute THE SET RETURNED BY PROUST TO THE PUBLISHER IN ORDER TO SERVE AS PRINTER'S COPY FOR SECOND PROOFS (secondes épreuves en pages). He concurrently worked on all three sets of the galleys submitted to him, cutting and pasting, raiding the other two in order to construct this set (see table below). He changed the general title of the cycle at an early stage and the title of the first novel even twice (see galley sheet 1).
Returning the set to Grasset in batches, Proust called them "these lamentable proofs which fill me with shame" because of the inextricable mess with which he landed Colin's compositors. Not that the text was always that radically changed, but "almost everything I have added, I have crossed out again." IT IS THESE CANCELLED ADDITIONS AND CHANGES -- OCCASIONALLY CONSIDERABLE STRETCHES OF TEXT -- THAT ARE UNPUBLISHED AND UNTIL NOW UNKNOWN. Both other sets of these proofs are in the Bibliothèque nationale de France: NAF 16753 is very lightly corrected and very imperfect, containing sheets 1, 4, 5 (four columns only), 6 (3 columns only), 23 (4 columns only), 25 and 26 of "Combray"; and sheets 36 (7 columns only), 44 (4 columns only), 46 and 50 (4 columns only) of "Un amour de Swann"; NAF 16754 is almost complete but entirely uncorrected, lacking only sheets 1, 6 and 24-26 of "Combray" and sheet 46 of "Un amour de Swann"; both have the "Noms de pays" galleys, the former imperfectly.
Because of the additional work his corrections gave the compositors, Proust agrees to pay Grasset F 595 extra to cover the cost of setting the rewriting on the first 45 sheets of the present set of galleys. For a while he assumes that the text of all 95 placards might be fitted into the first novel, but later agrees to cut its length considerably by grafting text from sheets 74-75 onto sheet 59 as an ending to "Noms de pays: Le Nom". Revised text of sheets 60-73 and 76-95 was to make up the first section of the contractually planned next novel, Le côté de Guermantes, but the general mobilisation of 1st August 1914 interrupts the project and Grasset would never publish Proust again. The unused text of "Noms de pays" -- greatly changed -- will form the first part of A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs, published by Gaston Gallimard in 1918, which gains Proust the Prix Goncourt a year later. Le côté de Guermantes is the third novel in the cycle to be published (NRF, 1920). Proust had spent the four years of the Great War modifying the structure of A la recherche du temps perdu, expanding the cycle from three to seven novels, the final three of which would appear posthumously.
While Proust is still correcting the galley first proofs of his first published novel in early June 1913, the second proofs -- page proofs -- already begin to arrive, so that he works simultaneously on two series. He makes a fair number of revisions to the second proofs, but corrects only misprints to the subsequent series of page proofs (the third, fourth and fifth proofs). Even so, when the novel is finally published on 8th November 1913, numerous inaccuracies and misprints remain, necessitating a second issue of the first edition to correct at least fifty-two of them. The type-area of the first-edition pages has exactly the same dimensions as the galley columns.
Apart from the unique literary-historical importance of these revised galley proofs, the visual appeal of their mixture of manuscript and printed matter, of sober columns and excessive alterations, is all the more striking for being unintentional.
LIST OF GALLEYS
pl. 1 31 March 1913, manuscript incipit: Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure. Heavily revised; general title Les Intermittences du Coeur changed to A la recherche du temps perdu, volume title Le temps perdu first changed to Charles Swann and then to Du côté de chez Swann. Cols 3-8 transferred from sheet 1 that now forms part of the BnF set, NAF 16753; both sheets show the same pattern of separation between cols 1-2 and 3-8 (see BnF Proust exh. cat. 1999, ill. 289). Two paste-ons, one incorporating printed text transferred from col. 1 of pl. 2.
pl. 2 1 April 1913, printed incipit: serait impuissant à se rendre un logis habitable. Heavily revised. Col. 1 partly cut out and transferred to pl. 1 between cols 7 and 8.
pl. 3 1 April 1913, printed incipit: puiseraient sa présence réelle. Heavily revised. One folded paste-on.
pl. 4 2 April 1913, printed incipit: Aussi, ma grand'tante en usait-elle cavalièrement avec lui. Heavily revised. Two paste-ons (one multiple and folded).
pl. 5 4 April 1913 (date obscured by paste-on), manuscript incipit: Mais le seul d'entre nous pour qui la venue de Swann fut l'objet d'une préoccupation douloureuse, c'était moi. Very heavily revised. Two folded multiple paste-ons, including part of col. 2 cut out and transferred to precede col. 1; part of col. 1 taken from BnF set NAF 16753 and pasted onto col. 2 of the present sheet.
pl. 6 4 April 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: que Françoise ne me crut pas car comme les hommes primitifs dont les sens étaient plus puissants que les nôtres, elle discernait immédiatement. Very heavily revised. One folded paste-on; col. 6 taken from NAF 16753 or 16754 and pasted onto the same column of the present set.
pl. 7 4 April 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: resté levé pour lui redire bonsoir dans le couloir, on ne me laisserait pas rester à la maison. Heavily revised.
pl. 8 7 April 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: romans champêtres de George Sand qu'elle me donnait pour ma fête, étaient pleins, comme un mobilier ancien, d'expressions tombées en désuétude. Moderately revised.
pl. 9 7 April 1913, printed incipit: cet état inconnu, qui n'apportait aucune preuve logique. Moderately revised.
pl. 10 8 April 1913, printed incipit: et si en bas tu rencontres Françoise, dis-lui de ne pas s'amuser trop longtemps avec vous. Moderately revised.
pl. 10ter
(originally 17) 16 April 1913, manuscript and printed incipit: L'église! Familière; mitoyenne, rue Saint-Hilaire, où était sa porte nord. Moderately revised. This is pl. 17 cols 1-7, whose text is transferred to precede pl. 11. The renumbering in blue crayon, presumably done at the printer's or publisher's. Col. 8 cut out and transferred as a folded paste-on to precede col. 1 of pl. 18.
pl. 11 11 [sic] April 1913 (date obscured by paste-on), manuscript and printed incipit: En rentrant de la messe, nous rencontrions souvent M. Le Grandin qui retenu à Paris par sa profession d'ingenieur, ne pouvait, en dehors des grandes vacances, venir à sa propriété de Combray que du samedi soir au lundi matin. Heavily revised. Folded multiple paste-on at the top of col. 1, incorporating part of col. 6 and all of col. 7 transferred from pl. 18.
pl. 12 10 April 1913, printed incipit: dait la sensation du fleurissement et de la vie à mon cerveau assoupli et fertilisé. Lightly revised.
pl. 13 11 April 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: invention du peintre elle foule aux pieds les trésors de la terre. Lightly revised.
pl. 14 11 April 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: donc une que je n'avais pas entendue, quelque chose qui avait eu lieu n'avait pas eu lieu pour moi. Moderately revised.
pl. 15 12 April 1913, printed incipit: liste qui avait déjà été, sans que je m'en rendisse compte, la cause du plaisir que je prenais à lire Bergotte. Heavily revised. Three paste-ons (one multiple and folded); part of col. 2 cut and pasted onto col. 3. For another copy of the same sheet -- lightly revised -- see lot 74.
pl. 16 14 April 1913, manuscript incipit: explications infinies et d'ailleurs toujours les mêmes. Heavily revised. One folded paste-on. Cols 5-8 marked "Planche 10bis" in blue crayon, presumably at the publisher's; their text was to be inserted between the end of pl. 10 and the beginning of pl. 10ter (originally 17).
pl. 17 transferred and renumbered (see pl. 10ter).
pl. 18
(renumbered in manuscript "pl. 17 et 18") 18 April 1913, manuscript incipit: Le Curé avait tellement fatigué ma tante qu'à peine était-il parti, elle était obligée de renvoyer Eulalie. Lightly revised. Col. 8 of pl. 17=10ter pasted to the top of col. 1. Most of col. 6 and all of col. 7 transferred to pl. 11; col. 8 mounted to follow the remaining fragment of col. 6.
pl. 19 18 April 1913, manuscript incipit: M. Vington était venu avec sa fille se placer à côté de nous. Heavily revised.
pl. 20 19 April 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: regard particulière aux personnes qui ne veulent pas être aimables. Moderately revised.
pl. 21 22 April 1913, manuscript incipit: attitude ou action où se révèle le caractère profond et caché de quelqu'un. Moderately revised.
pl. 22 22 April 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: l'étang, rougeur qui, accompagnée souvent d'un froid assez vif, s'associait, dans mon esprit, à la rougeur du feu. Moderately revised.
pl. 23 22 April 1913, printed incipit: parure de fête, -- de ces seules vraies fêtes que sont les fêtes religieuses. Heavily revised. Cols 1-4 taken from the sheet now in BnF set NAF 16753.
pl. 24 23 April 1913, printed incipit: c'est du côté de Méséglise, à la Combe, maison située au bord d'une grande mare. Very heavily revised. One folded multiple paste-on. Several publisher's marks in blue crayon.
pl. 25 23 April 1913, manuscript and printed incipit: sévèrement au moment où je m'élançais vers eux pour les embrasser. Heavily revised.
pl. 26 24 April 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: Je n'en entendis pas davantage, car Mlle Vinteuil d'un air las, gauche, affairé, honnête et triste vint fermer les volets. Moderately revised. One folded paste-on at col. 4
pl. 27 24 April 1913, printed incipit: Nous nous asseyions entre les iris au bord de l'eau. Moderately revised.
pl. 28 24 April 1913, manuscript incipit: gens qu'il rencontrait au passage, qu'il atteignait à tous moments. Moderately revised. Deleted instruction to the printer on point size.
pl. 29 25 April 1913, printed incipit: courais, que les choses, les êtres qu'ils m'ont fait connaître. Heavily revised. Folded paste-on at col. 2; 23 lines cut from col. 6 and pasted for insertion at col. 7. "Combray" ending on col. 3. Printed beginning of "Un amour de Swann" on cols 4 and 5 deleted, manuscript incipit on col. 6: Pour faire partie du " petit noyau", du "petit groupe", du "petit clan" des Verdurin, une condition était suffisante ...
pl. 30 25 April 1913, printed incipit: durin transmit-il séance tenante la requête à sa femme. Moderately revised.
pl. 31 25 April 1913, printed incipit: dit que le temps lui durerait jusqu'à ce qu'il lui permit de revenir. Moderately revised.
pl. 32 25 April 1913, printed incipit: un mot grave dit sérieusement comme venait de l'être le mot "bonheur". Heavily revised. One folded multiple paste-on.
pl. 33 28 April 1913, printed incipit: Or, quelques minutes à peine après que le petit pianiste avait commencé de jouer chez Mme Verdurin. Moderately revised. One folded paste-on.
pl. 34 28 April 1913, printed incipit: Mais il n'entrait jamais chez elle. Heavily revised. Portion of col. 4 pasted to col. 5; folded paste-on replacing text of col. 4.
pl. 35
(misnumbered 83 and corrected in manuscript)
29 April 1913, printed incipit: -- Voyons, ne dites pas du mal d'Odette, dit Mme Verdurin en faisant l'enfant. Moderately revised. Fragment of col. 1 from pl. 36 pasted onto col. 8 of this sheet.
pl. 36 30 April 1913 (date obscured by paste-on), manuscript and printed incipit: Il trouvait ouverts sur son piano quelques-uns des morceaux qu'elle préférait. Heavily revised. Folded multiple paste-on at the top of col. 1, incorporating col. 4 cut from the same sheet.
pl. 37 30 April 1913, printed incipit: Elle ne comprenait pas que Swann habitât l'hôtel du quai d'Orléans. Lightly revised.
pl. 38 2 May 1913, printed incipit: veillé par les unes, sans d'ailleurs les comprendre, et de se délecter aux autres. Lightly revised.
pl. 39 2 May 1913, printed incipit: avait-il dit à Mme Verdurin quand le peintre eut terminé, comme j'en ai rarement rencontrées. Heavily revised. One folded past-on.
pl. 40 3 May 1913, printed incipit: qu'elle les reçût avant de sortir pour que la reconnaissance qu'elle éprouverait lui valût un accueil plus tendre. Moderately revised.
pl. 41 5 May 1913, printed incipit: croyaient bien loin d'ici et qui, lui, savait déjà qu'il allait frapper aux volets. Very lightly revised.
pl. 42 6 May 1913, printed incipit: pas vu. "Il savait bien qu'elle n'était pas assez amoureuse de lui. Lightly revised.
Pl. 43 8 May 1913, printed incipit: mosphère plus noble et plus pure. Moderately revised.
pl. 44 8 May 1913, printed incipit: vu, trace de Verdurin, ayant l'air de rechercher ce qu'il disait vouloir fuir. Very heavily revised. Two folded multiple paste-ons and one small paste-on. Made up of two half sheets, cols 5-8 taken from BnF set NAF 16753. Printer's instruction in red crayon.
pl. 45 8 May 1913, printed incipit: avant son retour, donnant ainsi les apparences, et demandant le bénéfice, d'une grande brouille [lines 1-23 of col. 1 deleted, but actually retained without apparent instruction]. Heavily revised. Long folded multiple paste-on [paperole] at col. 8; portion of col. 8 cut out and pasted to col. 1 of pl. 46.
pl. 46 9 May 1913 (date obscured by paste-on), printed incipit: libre, elle voulait d'abord être certaine que personne d'autre ne lui proposerait de venir. Heavily revised. Portion from col. 8 of pl. 45 pasted at the top of col. 1 of this sheet. Three folded paste-ons. Printer's or publisher's marks in blue crayon.
pl. 47 9 May 1913, printed incipit: du Maître ou quelque Saxon d'Albert Durer. Heavily revised.
pl. 48 10 May 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: rire attendri de satisfaction compétente et d'allusion au passé. Heavily revised. One folded paste-on.
pl. 49 13 May 1913, printed incipit: j'ai aussi des choses comme ça que Basin a heritées des Montesquiou. Very heavily revised. Two paste-ons (one folded). A few publisher's marks in red and blue crayon.
pl. 50 13 May 1913 (date obscured by paste-on), manuscript incipit: Quand après la soirée Verdurin, se faisant rejouer la petite phrase, il avait cherché à démêler. Cols 1-4 only, 5-8 lacking= BnF NAF 16753. Heavily revised. One folded paste-on at col. 1.
pl. 51 13 May 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: ce n'est pas un honnête homme. Very heavily revised. Two long folded multiple paste-ons, one small folded paste-on. Instructions to compositor in blue and red crayon.
pl. 52 14 May 1913, manuscript incipit: Aussi bien que ce moment où elle lui avait dit sortir de la Maison Dorée. Heavily revised. Folded paste-on torn at the top, accounting for a lacuna of about two pages of text (pp. 454-456 in the first edition) following the end of the text on pl. 51. Col. 8 ends: Cependant le décor qu'il avait sous les yeux vola en poussière, il ouvrit les yeux, entendit une dernière fois le bruit ... The text of "Un amour de Swann" ends on col. 1 of pl. 53 [15 May 1913], which is not present in this set. The ending was expanded by a little more than one page (as published), either at galley or second-proof stage, but the manuscript insertion does not survive.
Premières épreuves de Du côté de chez Swann Le jeu perdu des placards corrigés
Placards numérotés 1-29 ( première partie: "Combray") et 29-52 (deuxième partie: "Un amour de Swann"), abondamment révisés par l'auteur et renvoyés à l'éditeur, avec des repentirs sur béquets et paperoles
De Les intermittences du coeur à A la recherche du temps perdu
De Le temps perdu via Charles Swann à Du côté de chez Swann
Entre Mayenne et Paris Du 31 mars au 14 mai 1913
"Je suis en train de corriger mes premières épreuves ... Mes corrections jusqu'ici ... ne sont pas des corrections. Il ne reste pas une ligne sur 20 du texte primitif ... c'est rayé, corrigé dans toutes les parties blanches que je peux trouver, et je colle des papiers en haut, en bas, à droite, à gauche ..." (lettre à Vaudoyer 12-iv-1913, le jour de la correction du placard 15)
" En réalité le texte n'est pas extrêmement changé, car tout ce que j'ai ajouté, je l'ai généralement rebiffé ensuite. Mais il en résulte sinon un changement de dimensions ... du moins un inextricable gâchis qui va donner à vos ouvriers une peine dont je suis désolé et confus ..." (lettre à Grasset 19-iv-1913, lors de la correction du placard 20)
73.
PROUST, Marcel (Auteuil 1871-1922 Paris). Extensively revised galley first proofs of "Combray" and "Un amour de Swann", the first (complete) and second (almost complete) parts of A la recherche du temps perdu: Du côté de chez Swann. Mayenne: Charles Colin [for Marcel Proust and Bernard Grasset (Paris)], 31 March - 14 May 1913 (printer's date-stamps).
52 oblong broadsheets (380 x 555mm), galleys numbered 1-52 (placards or "planches"), printed on one side, each divided in 8 typographical columns (139 x 86mm) of 37 lines. At least two stocks of wove proof paper, roman type (75mm). ELABORATE AUTOGRAPH CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS IN INK THROUGHOUT, 28 sheets with a total of 45 paste-ons (béquets) and multiple continuous paste-ons (paperoles); more than a dozen columns or partial columns cut out and transferred to the same, neighbouring or distant galley sheets; five sheets constructed from two sets.
CONDITION: Lacking half of sheet 50 (columns 5-8) and full galley sheets 53-95 (the last column of "Un amour de Swann"; all of "Noms de pays", of which sheets 53-59 and 74-75 were published as the novel's short third part "Noms de pays: Le Nom" and the others remained unpublished until their text was reworked to form the first part "Autour de Mme Swann" of the second novel A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs [NRF, 1918]). Paste-on at pl. 52 defective (with loss of text), some small holes, cuts, slight separation at several folds, traces of glue, minor discolouration, a few small stains, and two short marginal tears in sheet 13, but THE FRAGILE SHEETS AND PASTE-ONS ARE EXTREMELY WELL-PRESERVED, some even in fresh condition.
BINDING: The galley sheets have been very skilfully mounted -- most at the edges only -- into a large oblong modern album of thick white paper, bound in fine French gold-tooled brown morocco à la bradel, signed Leca, with matching slipcase.
PROVENANCE: Marcel Proust, bequeathed with the rest of his literary archive to his younger brother -- Dr Robert Proust (1873-1935) -- separated from the archive by Dr Proust's widow, Marthe Dubois-Amyot, as were some other important papers and objects at that time (the main archive was acquired in 1962 by the Bibliothèque nationale from Dr Proust's daughter, Suzy Mante, who had previously offered it to the Pierpont Morgan Library, Harvard University Library, and the University of Texas Library; the latter had agreed to purchase when the BN intervened) -- private collections (binding).
THE DISCOVERY OF THIS LONG-LOST SET OF CORRECTED GALLEY PROOFS REVEALS A CRUCIAL STAGE IN THE CREATIVE PROCESS OF THE GREATEST FRENCH NOVEL OF THE 20TH CENTURY. It was unkown to the editors of the latest Pléiade text (1987) and no future critical edition of the work may omit close study of the extensive autograph revisions.
THESE SHEETS CONTAIN THE MOST IMPORTANT AUTOGRAPH WORKING MANUSCRIPT OF PROUST LEFT IN PRIVATE HANDS AND NOTHING OF COMPARABLE LITERARY SIGNIFICANCE AND LENGTH, RELATING TO HIS IMMORTAL NOVEL, WILL EVER AGAIN APPEAR ON THE MARKET. Fifty copies of the special edition (NRF, 1920) of A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs were each provided with one or two galley sheets or fragments of manuscripts, but dispersed as they are, cannot form a coherent whole. For the rest, practically all the notebooks, holograph manuscripts, typescripts and proofs are now located in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (their most recent acquisitions -- from two different sources -- dating from 1977 and 1984).
In Search of Lost Time has roots that go back as far as the unfinished and unpublished (until 1952) novel Jean Santeuil, on which Proust worked intermittently from 1895 to 1900. However, its origins are manifest in his relatively finished but also unpublished (until 1954) novel Contre Sainte-Beuve, on which he worked during most of 1908 and 1909. At that time, the conception of a great and complicated novel begins to form in his mind and find its way into his notebooks (cahiers). In 1909-1910 he is definitely at work on "Combray", "Un amour de Swann" [Swann in Love] and "Noms de pays" [Place Names], the three parts of what will become Du côté de chez Swann [Swann's Way] and the first chapter "Autour de Mme Swann" [Madame Swann at Home] of A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs [Within a Budding Grove], the first two of seven novels in the eventual cycle of A la recherche du temps perdu ["Remembrance of Things Past", to quote Scott Moncrieff's title so detested by Nabokov].
As Proust's novel of involuntary memory, the unconscious, creativity, love, society, art and music, circulates at this early stage in various forms (manuscript, typescript, extracts serialised in Le Figaro [its editor, Gaston Calmette, is the dedicatee of Du côté de chez Swann]) among friends, writers and editors, it meets with widely differing responses of extreme admiration, indifference and negative criticism. Proust begins to look for a publisher in 1912, variously speaking of and planning his work in two or three volumes. After rejections from Eugène Fasquelle, André Gide for Gallimard's Nouvelle Revue Française, and Alfred Humblot for Paul Ollendorf ["je ne puis comprendre qu'un Monsieur puisse employer trente pages à décrire comment il se tourne et se retourne dans son lit, avant de trouver le sommeil"], the author decides to publish at his own expense despite Louis de Robert's warning that vanity publication might ruin his reputation as a serious writer. At the suggestion of René Blum, he contacts the young and dynamic publisher Bernard Grasset. On 11 March 1913 a contract is signed and Proust makes a first payment towards the printing costs. Then begin the exhausting and exhaustive process of correcting proofs, to the point of rewriting large sections of text, and a constant shuttle of manuscript and printed sheets between author and publisher in Paris and Charles Colin's press at Mayenne (half-way between Alençon and Rennes).
Colin set the text of Swann's Way from copy typed by Cecilia Hayward of the Grand-Hôtel at Cabourg, who worked from a manuscript prepared by the author's friend and secretary, Albert Nahmias. Grasset provided Proust with three sets of identical galley proofs to make his corrections. The first sheet arrived in three copies on 31st March 1913, sheets 2 and 3 on 1st April, and subsequent sheets at an average rate of more than one a day. Proust immediately set to work, writing to Vaudoyen on 12th April: "I am busily correcting my first proofs. New galleys arrive every day, but I have not returned a single one yet ... My corrections so far (I hope that this will not go on) are more than just that. Not one line in twenty remains of the original text ... It is crossed out, corrected wherever I can find a blank space, and I paste on pieces of paper at the top, bottom, left, right, etc." He warned Grasset about the fragility of the sheets and the complications that would result if the paste-ons tore off; he continued: "There are galleys that may seem to be half-missing. This is because I have transferred a passage elsewhere."
The extent and method of revision described are borne out by this rediscovered corrected first proof in galleys (premières épreuves en placards), which constitute THE SET RETURNED BY PROUST TO THE PUBLISHER IN ORDER TO SERVE AS PRINTER'S COPY FOR SECOND PROOFS (secondes épreuves en pages). He concurrently worked on all three sets of the galleys submitted to him, cutting and pasting, raiding the other two in order to construct this set (see table below). He changed the general title of the cycle at an early stage and the title of the first novel even twice (see galley sheet 1).
Returning the set to Grasset in batches, Proust called them "these lamentable proofs which fill me with shame" because of the inextricable mess with which he landed Colin's compositors. Not that the text was always that radically changed, but "almost everything I have added, I have crossed out again." IT IS THESE CANCELLED ADDITIONS AND CHANGES -- OCCASIONALLY CONSIDERABLE STRETCHES OF TEXT -- THAT ARE UNPUBLISHED AND UNTIL NOW UNKNOWN. Both other sets of these proofs are in the Bibliothèque nationale de France: NAF 16753 is very lightly corrected and very imperfect, containing sheets 1, 4, 5 (four columns only), 6 (3 columns only), 23 (4 columns only), 25 and 26 of "Combray"; and sheets 36 (7 columns only), 44 (4 columns only), 46 and 50 (4 columns only) of "Un amour de Swann"; NAF 16754 is almost complete but entirely uncorrected, lacking only sheets 1, 6 and 24-26 of "Combray" and sheet 46 of "Un amour de Swann"; both have the "Noms de pays" galleys, the former imperfectly.
Because of the additional work his corrections gave the compositors, Proust agrees to pay Grasset F 595 extra to cover the cost of setting the rewriting on the first 45 sheets of the present set of galleys. For a while he assumes that the text of all 95 placards might be fitted into the first novel, but later agrees to cut its length considerably by grafting text from sheets 74-75 onto sheet 59 as an ending to "Noms de pays: Le Nom". Revised text of sheets 60-73 and 76-95 was to make up the first section of the contractually planned next novel, Le côté de Guermantes, but the general mobilisation of 1st August 1914 interrupts the project and Grasset would never publish Proust again. The unused text of "Noms de pays" -- greatly changed -- will form the first part of A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs, published by Gaston Gallimard in 1918, which gains Proust the Prix Goncourt a year later. Le côté de Guermantes is the third novel in the cycle to be published (NRF, 1920). Proust had spent the four years of the Great War modifying the structure of A la recherche du temps perdu, expanding the cycle from three to seven novels, the final three of which would appear posthumously.
While Proust is still correcting the galley first proofs of his first published novel in early June 1913, the second proofs -- page proofs -- already begin to arrive, so that he works simultaneously on two series. He makes a fair number of revisions to the second proofs, but corrects only misprints to the subsequent series of page proofs (the third, fourth and fifth proofs). Even so, when the novel is finally published on 8th November 1913, numerous inaccuracies and misprints remain, necessitating a second issue of the first edition to correct at least fifty-two of them. The type-area of the first-edition pages has exactly the same dimensions as the galley columns.
Apart from the unique literary-historical importance of these revised galley proofs, the visual appeal of their mixture of manuscript and printed matter, of sober columns and excessive alterations, is all the more striking for being unintentional.
LIST OF GALLEYS
pl. 1 31 March 1913, manuscript incipit: Longtemps, je me suis couché de bonne heure. Heavily revised; general title Les Intermittences du Coeur changed to A la recherche du temps perdu, volume title Le temps perdu first changed to Charles Swann and then to Du côté de chez Swann. Cols 3-8 transferred from sheet 1 that now forms part of the BnF set, NAF 16753; both sheets show the same pattern of separation between cols 1-2 and 3-8 (see BnF Proust exh. cat. 1999, ill. 289). Two paste-ons, one incorporating printed text transferred from col. 1 of pl. 2.
pl. 2 1 April 1913, printed incipit: serait impuissant à se rendre un logis habitable. Heavily revised. Col. 1 partly cut out and transferred to pl. 1 between cols 7 and 8.
pl. 3 1 April 1913, printed incipit: puiseraient sa présence réelle. Heavily revised. One folded paste-on.
pl. 4 2 April 1913, printed incipit: Aussi, ma grand'tante en usait-elle cavalièrement avec lui. Heavily revised. Two paste-ons (one multiple and folded).
pl. 5 4 April 1913 (date obscured by paste-on), manuscript incipit: Mais le seul d'entre nous pour qui la venue de Swann fut l'objet d'une préoccupation douloureuse, c'était moi. Very heavily revised. Two folded multiple paste-ons, including part of col. 2 cut out and transferred to precede col. 1; part of col. 1 taken from BnF set NAF 16753 and pasted onto col. 2 of the present sheet.
pl. 6 4 April 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: que Françoise ne me crut pas car comme les hommes primitifs dont les sens étaient plus puissants que les nôtres, elle discernait immédiatement. Very heavily revised. One folded paste-on; col. 6 taken from NAF 16753 or 16754 and pasted onto the same column of the present set.
pl. 7 4 April 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: resté levé pour lui redire bonsoir dans le couloir, on ne me laisserait pas rester à la maison. Heavily revised.
pl. 8 7 April 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: romans champêtres de George Sand qu'elle me donnait pour ma fête, étaient pleins, comme un mobilier ancien, d'expressions tombées en désuétude. Moderately revised.
pl. 9 7 April 1913, printed incipit: cet état inconnu, qui n'apportait aucune preuve logique. Moderately revised.
pl. 10 8 April 1913, printed incipit: et si en bas tu rencontres Françoise, dis-lui de ne pas s'amuser trop longtemps avec vous. Moderately revised.
pl. 10ter
(originally 17) 16 April 1913, manuscript and printed incipit: L'église! Familière; mitoyenne, rue Saint-Hilaire, où était sa porte nord. Moderately revised. This is pl. 17 cols 1-7, whose text is transferred to precede pl. 11. The renumbering in blue crayon, presumably done at the printer's or publisher's. Col. 8 cut out and transferred as a folded paste-on to precede col. 1 of pl. 18.
pl. 11 11 [sic] April 1913 (date obscured by paste-on), manuscript and printed incipit: En rentrant de la messe, nous rencontrions souvent M. Le Grandin qui retenu à Paris par sa profession d'ingenieur, ne pouvait, en dehors des grandes vacances, venir à sa propriété de Combray que du samedi soir au lundi matin. Heavily revised. Folded multiple paste-on at the top of col. 1, incorporating part of col. 6 and all of col. 7 transferred from pl. 18.
pl. 12 10 April 1913, printed incipit: dait la sensation du fleurissement et de la vie à mon cerveau assoupli et fertilisé. Lightly revised.
pl. 13 11 April 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: invention du peintre elle foule aux pieds les trésors de la terre. Lightly revised.
pl. 14 11 April 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: donc une que je n'avais pas entendue, quelque chose qui avait eu lieu n'avait pas eu lieu pour moi. Moderately revised.
pl. 15 12 April 1913, printed incipit: liste qui avait déjà été, sans que je m'en rendisse compte, la cause du plaisir que je prenais à lire Bergotte. Heavily revised. Three paste-ons (one multiple and folded); part of col. 2 cut and pasted onto col. 3. For another copy of the same sheet -- lightly revised -- see lot 74.
pl. 16 14 April 1913, manuscript incipit: explications infinies et d'ailleurs toujours les mêmes. Heavily revised. One folded paste-on. Cols 5-8 marked "Planche 10bis" in blue crayon, presumably at the publisher's; their text was to be inserted between the end of pl. 10 and the beginning of pl. 10ter (originally 17).
pl. 17 transferred and renumbered (see pl. 10ter).
pl. 18
(renumbered in manuscript "pl. 17 et 18") 18 April 1913, manuscript incipit: Le Curé avait tellement fatigué ma tante qu'à peine était-il parti, elle était obligée de renvoyer Eulalie. Lightly revised. Col. 8 of pl. 17=10ter pasted to the top of col. 1. Most of col. 6 and all of col. 7 transferred to pl. 11; col. 8 mounted to follow the remaining fragment of col. 6.
pl. 19 18 April 1913, manuscript incipit: M. Vington était venu avec sa fille se placer à côté de nous. Heavily revised.
pl. 20 19 April 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: regard particulière aux personnes qui ne veulent pas être aimables. Moderately revised.
pl. 21 22 April 1913, manuscript incipit: attitude ou action où se révèle le caractère profond et caché de quelqu'un. Moderately revised.
pl. 22 22 April 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: l'étang, rougeur qui, accompagnée souvent d'un froid assez vif, s'associait, dans mon esprit, à la rougeur du feu. Moderately revised.
pl. 23 22 April 1913, printed incipit: parure de fête, -- de ces seules vraies fêtes que sont les fêtes religieuses. Heavily revised. Cols 1-4 taken from the sheet now in BnF set NAF 16753.
pl. 24 23 April 1913, printed incipit: c'est du côté de Méséglise, à la Combe, maison située au bord d'une grande mare. Very heavily revised. One folded multiple paste-on. Several publisher's marks in blue crayon.
pl. 25 23 April 1913, manuscript and printed incipit: sévèrement au moment où je m'élançais vers eux pour les embrasser. Heavily revised.
pl. 26 24 April 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: Je n'en entendis pas davantage, car Mlle Vinteuil d'un air las, gauche, affairé, honnête et triste vint fermer les volets. Moderately revised. One folded paste-on at col. 4
pl. 27 24 April 1913, printed incipit: Nous nous asseyions entre les iris au bord de l'eau. Moderately revised.
pl. 28 24 April 1913, manuscript incipit: gens qu'il rencontrait au passage, qu'il atteignait à tous moments. Moderately revised. Deleted instruction to the printer on point size.
pl. 29 25 April 1913, printed incipit: courais, que les choses, les êtres qu'ils m'ont fait connaître. Heavily revised. Folded paste-on at col. 2; 23 lines cut from col. 6 and pasted for insertion at col. 7. "Combray" ending on col. 3. Printed beginning of "Un amour de Swann" on cols 4 and 5 deleted, manuscript incipit on col. 6: Pour faire partie du " petit noyau", du "petit groupe", du "petit clan" des Verdurin, une condition était suffisante ...
pl. 30 25 April 1913, printed incipit: durin transmit-il séance tenante la requête à sa femme. Moderately revised.
pl. 31 25 April 1913, printed incipit: dit que le temps lui durerait jusqu'à ce qu'il lui permit de revenir. Moderately revised.
pl. 32 25 April 1913, printed incipit: un mot grave dit sérieusement comme venait de l'être le mot "bonheur". Heavily revised. One folded multiple paste-on.
pl. 33 28 April 1913, printed incipit: Or, quelques minutes à peine après que le petit pianiste avait commencé de jouer chez Mme Verdurin. Moderately revised. One folded paste-on.
pl. 34 28 April 1913, printed incipit: Mais il n'entrait jamais chez elle. Heavily revised. Portion of col. 4 pasted to col. 5; folded paste-on replacing text of col. 4.
pl. 35
(misnumbered 83 and corrected in manuscript)
29 April 1913, printed incipit: -- Voyons, ne dites pas du mal d'Odette, dit Mme Verdurin en faisant l'enfant. Moderately revised. Fragment of col. 1 from pl. 36 pasted onto col. 8 of this sheet.
pl. 36 30 April 1913 (date obscured by paste-on), manuscript and printed incipit: Il trouvait ouverts sur son piano quelques-uns des morceaux qu'elle préférait. Heavily revised. Folded multiple paste-on at the top of col. 1, incorporating col. 4 cut from the same sheet.
pl. 37 30 April 1913, printed incipit: Elle ne comprenait pas que Swann habitât l'hôtel du quai d'Orléans. Lightly revised.
pl. 38 2 May 1913, printed incipit: veillé par les unes, sans d'ailleurs les comprendre, et de se délecter aux autres. Lightly revised.
pl. 39 2 May 1913, printed incipit: avait-il dit à Mme Verdurin quand le peintre eut terminé, comme j'en ai rarement rencontrées. Heavily revised. One folded past-on.
pl. 40 3 May 1913, printed incipit: qu'elle les reçût avant de sortir pour que la reconnaissance qu'elle éprouverait lui valût un accueil plus tendre. Moderately revised.
pl. 41 5 May 1913, printed incipit: croyaient bien loin d'ici et qui, lui, savait déjà qu'il allait frapper aux volets. Very lightly revised.
pl. 42 6 May 1913, printed incipit: pas vu. "Il savait bien qu'elle n'était pas assez amoureuse de lui. Lightly revised.
Pl. 43 8 May 1913, printed incipit: mosphère plus noble et plus pure. Moderately revised.
pl. 44 8 May 1913, printed incipit: vu, trace de Verdurin, ayant l'air de rechercher ce qu'il disait vouloir fuir. Very heavily revised. Two folded multiple paste-ons and one small paste-on. Made up of two half sheets, cols 5-8 taken from BnF set NAF 16753. Printer's instruction in red crayon.
pl. 45 8 May 1913, printed incipit: avant son retour, donnant ainsi les apparences, et demandant le bénéfice, d'une grande brouille [lines 1-23 of col. 1 deleted, but actually retained without apparent instruction]. Heavily revised. Long folded multiple paste-on [paperole] at col. 8; portion of col. 8 cut out and pasted to col. 1 of pl. 46.
pl. 46 9 May 1913 (date obscured by paste-on), printed incipit: libre, elle voulait d'abord être certaine que personne d'autre ne lui proposerait de venir. Heavily revised. Portion from col. 8 of pl. 45 pasted at the top of col. 1 of this sheet. Three folded paste-ons. Printer's or publisher's marks in blue crayon.
pl. 47 9 May 1913, printed incipit: du Maître ou quelque Saxon d'Albert Durer. Heavily revised.
pl. 48 10 May 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: rire attendri de satisfaction compétente et d'allusion au passé. Heavily revised. One folded paste-on.
pl. 49 13 May 1913, printed incipit: j'ai aussi des choses comme ça que Basin a heritées des Montesquiou. Very heavily revised. Two paste-ons (one folded). A few publisher's marks in red and blue crayon.
pl. 50 13 May 1913 (date obscured by paste-on), manuscript incipit: Quand après la soirée Verdurin, se faisant rejouer la petite phrase, il avait cherché à démêler. Cols 1-4 only, 5-8 lacking= BnF NAF 16753. Heavily revised. One folded paste-on at col. 1.
pl. 51 13 May 1913, printed and manuscript incipit: ce n'est pas un honnête homme. Very heavily revised. Two long folded multiple paste-ons, one small folded paste-on. Instructions to compositor in blue and red crayon.
pl. 52 14 May 1913, manuscript incipit: Aussi bien que ce moment où elle lui avait dit sortir de la Maison Dorée. Heavily revised. Folded paste-on torn at the top, accounting for a lacuna of about two pages of text (pp. 454-456 in the first edition) following the end of the text on pl. 51. Col. 8 ends: Cependant le décor qu'il avait sous les yeux vola en poussière, il ouvrit les yeux, entendit une dernière fois le bruit ... The text of "Un amour de Swann" ends on col. 1 of pl. 53 [15 May 1913], which is not present in this set. The ending was expanded by a little more than one page (as published), either at galley or second-proof stage, but the manuscript insertion does not survive.
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