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Sodome et Gomorrhe II

1922140 x 195 mm

FIRST EDITION.
SIGNED AUTOGRAPH CONSIGNMENT
to Jacques Boulenger

4 000 

1 in stock

Description

À la recherche du temps perdu tome V - Sodome et Gomorrhe tome II.

FIRST EDITION.
Tirage courant, sans mention d'édition.

AUTOGRAPH SIGNED LETTER:

"To Jacques Boulenger
Son admirateur, son
ami reconnaissant
Marcel Proust"

Marcel PROUST - Jacques BOULENGER
Both a critic and a scholar, Jacques Boulenger (1879 - 1944) published essays on The Dandys (1907), The Great Century (1911), Nerval, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, and fighting animals. He also wrote for various magazines and was secretary of the Gil Blas from 1914 to 1920. From 1921, he was editor-in-chief of the weekly magazine L'Opinion in which, on 20 December 1919, he published an article entitled "Marcel Proust". He defended the author, emphasising the importance of the work and its originality, which he felt deserved the Prix Goncourt. Proust was delighted, but Boulenger went on to admit love a book he finds badly written and not at all compound. Proust set about convincing the critic with a multitude of flatteries, dinner invitations and introductions to dukes. But this strategy, which he repeated with other important critics such as Binet-Valmer, Souday and Pierrefeu, had the effect of arousing Boulenger's distrust, and he only visited Proust once in June 1921.
The critic analysed Proust's attitude in detail in an article in Figaro of 3 June 1932, noting that the letters received " seemed too kind  too complimentary, even too sensitive". He even turned a famous Proustian argument on its head, claiming that knowing the author personally does not help us to understand his work any better.
Even if he did not approve of his style, Boulenger remained a defender of the author of the Searchin particular against Pierrefeu, mentioning in L'Opinion several articles praising Proust.
Proust would continue to use his influence to convince Boulenger, going so far as to provoke a few incidents with Léon Daudet, Montesquiou and Vettard. But Boulenger's clear-sightedness and independence stood him in good stead.

Marcel Proust, Letters, biographical notes on correspondents, Virginie Greene, Plon 2004.

Paris,Published by the New French Review,1922.In-8, Softcover140 x 195 mm,230 pp.

Spine creased.

Bio

Marcel Proust

Marcel Proust, born in Paris on July 10, 1871 and died in Paris on November 18, 1922.

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