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Selected Letters, Vol. 2: 1904-1909
In 1904, while still working on his translations of Ruskin, Marcel Proust wrote to Maurice Barrès "I still have two Ruskin's to do, and after that I shall try to translate my own poor soul, if it doesn't die in the meantime." Within a few years Proust would begin this translation of his "own
poor soul"--the monumental Remembrance of Things Past , one of the great literary works of the 20th century.
In this volume of Proust's collected letters--translated by Terence Kilmartin, acclaimed for his work on the Moncrieff translation of Proust's works--the reader is carried inside this pivotal moment in a great writer's life. In a letter to Louis d'Albufera he lists the projects he has in
"a study on the nobility, a Parisian novel, an essay on Sainte-Beuve and Flaubert, an essay on Women, an essay on Pederasty (not easy to publish), a study on stained-glass windows, a study on tombstones, a study on the novel"--all subjects that eventually found their way into Remembrance of Things
Past . The final letter in the volume talks of alterations to his flat "which are essential for my peace and quiet"--an allusion no doubt to the cork-lined room in which he would spend so many years continuing to pursue his quest for "Lost Time."
The letters are intriguing for what they say about the work, but they also offer an intimate portrait of the man--the sometime invlaid recluse, sometime socialite. Although Proust spent a great deal of time insulated at home, when he does go out it is clear that the talent for malicious
observation so evident in Guermantes Way was already quite sharp. He refers to a group of dowagers he'd seen at a concert as "portraits of monsters from the time when people didn't know how to draw." And his letters to his devoted friend the composer Reynaldo Hahn are full of wit, scurrilous
gossip and a great deal of teasing. He also carries on lively exchanges with two very different women--Marie Nordlinger, a serious, dedicated artist, and Louisa de Mornand, a frivolous, mercenary actress. His letters to Marie are affectionate, but his letters to Louisa are amorous--sometimes even
salacious, (possibly because she served as a surrogate for his real interst, her lover Albufera.) Proust's celebrated devotion to his mother is also evident in this collection. Theirs is an intimate and loving correspondence, and her death in 1905 is clearly a tremendous blow ("My life has now
forever lost its only purpose, its only sweetness, its only consolation.")
This long-awaited volume will be welcomed by scholars and general readers alike. The letters offer a special insight into the man and his art during a crucial period, and they are as delightful to read--as beautifully crafted, witty and poignant--as his fiction.
poor soul"--the monumental Remembrance of Things Past , one of the great literary works of the 20th century.
In this volume of Proust's collected letters--translated by Terence Kilmartin, acclaimed for his work on the Moncrieff translation of Proust's works--the reader is carried inside this pivotal moment in a great writer's life. In a letter to Louis d'Albufera he lists the projects he has in
"a study on the nobility, a Parisian novel, an essay on Sainte-Beuve and Flaubert, an essay on Women, an essay on Pederasty (not easy to publish), a study on stained-glass windows, a study on tombstones, a study on the novel"--all subjects that eventually found their way into Remembrance of Things
Past . The final letter in the volume talks of alterations to his flat "which are essential for my peace and quiet"--an allusion no doubt to the cork-lined room in which he would spend so many years continuing to pursue his quest for "Lost Time."
The letters are intriguing for what they say about the work, but they also offer an intimate portrait of the man--the sometime invlaid recluse, sometime socialite. Although Proust spent a great deal of time insulated at home, when he does go out it is clear that the talent for malicious
observation so evident in Guermantes Way was already quite sharp. He refers to a group of dowagers he'd seen at a concert as "portraits of monsters from the time when people didn't know how to draw." And his letters to his devoted friend the composer Reynaldo Hahn are full of wit, scurrilous
gossip and a great deal of teasing. He also carries on lively exchanges with two very different women--Marie Nordlinger, a serious, dedicated artist, and Louisa de Mornand, a frivolous, mercenary actress. His letters to Marie are affectionate, but his letters to Louisa are amorous--sometimes even
salacious, (possibly because she served as a surrogate for his real interst, her lover Albufera.) Proust's celebrated devotion to his mother is also evident in this collection. Theirs is an intimate and loving correspondence, and her death in 1905 is clearly a tremendous blow ("My life has now
forever lost its only purpose, its only sweetness, its only consolation.")
This long-awaited volume will be welcomed by scholars and general readers alike. The letters offer a special insight into the man and his art during a crucial period, and they are as delightful to read--as beautifully crafted, witty and poignant--as his fiction.
- GenresBiography
512 pages, Hardcover
Published December 7, 1989
About the author
Marcel Proust
2,180 books7,616 followersMarcel Proust was a French novelist, best known for his 3000 page masterpiece À la recherche du temps perdu (Remembrance of Things Past or In Search of Lost Time), a pseudo-autobiographical novel told mostly in a stream-of-consciousness style.
Born in the first year of the Third Republic, the young Marcel, like his narrator, was a delicate child from a bourgeois family. He was active in Parisian high society during the 80s and 90s, welcomed in the most fashionable and exclusive salons of his day. However, his position there was also one of an outsider, due to his Jewishness and homosexuality. Towards the end of 1890s Proust began to withdraw more and more from society, and although he was never entirely reclusive, as is sometimes made out, he lapsed more completely into his lifelong tendency to sleep during the day and work at night. He was also plagued with severe asthma, which had troubled him intermittently since childhood, and a terror of his own death, especially in case it should come before his novel had been completed. The first volume, after some difficulty finding a publisher, came out in 1913, and Proust continued to work with an almost inhuman dedication on his masterpiece right up until his death in 1922, at the age of 51.
Today he is widely recognized as one of the greatest authors of the 20th Century, and À la recherche du temps perdu as one of the most dazzling and significant works of literature to be written in modern times.
Born in the first year of the Third Republic, the young Marcel, like his narrator, was a delicate child from a bourgeois family. He was active in Parisian high society during the 80s and 90s, welcomed in the most fashionable and exclusive salons of his day. However, his position there was also one of an outsider, due to his Jewishness and homosexuality. Towards the end of 1890s Proust began to withdraw more and more from society, and although he was never entirely reclusive, as is sometimes made out, he lapsed more completely into his lifelong tendency to sleep during the day and work at night. He was also plagued with severe asthma, which had troubled him intermittently since childhood, and a terror of his own death, especially in case it should come before his novel had been completed. The first volume, after some difficulty finding a publisher, came out in 1913, and Proust continued to work with an almost inhuman dedication on his masterpiece right up until his death in 1922, at the age of 51.
Today he is widely recognized as one of the greatest authors of the 20th Century, and À la recherche du temps perdu as one of the most dazzling and significant works of literature to be written in modern times.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 26, 2025
Selected Letters of Marcel Proust – A La Recherche du Temps Perdu is ranked second on The Greatest Books of All Time site, it is also second in the Le Monde Top 100 Books selection, and it is also part of The Guardian Best 100 Books of All Time and other prestigious lists, including mine – you have more than five thousand notes on magnum opera from the aforementioned and other GOAT pages, together with another five thousand notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other sites on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
10 out of 10
A La Recherche du Temps Perdu https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... is the best chef d’oeuvre in my Top 100, although Kingsley Amis, at times Somerset Maugham have masterpieces that are close to the same level, and the letters of Marcel Proust prove the immense talent of this genius
I think it was in The Unbearable Lightness of Being https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... by Milan Kundera that I have read about geniuses: ‘we must limit the use of this significant word, there are only four or five, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Albert Einstein…the meaning will be lost if we abuse it’
Albert Proust is nonetheless the quintessential genius, at least if you ask me, he has had a great influence, ever since I have first read A La Recherche du Temps Perdu, some of the volumes, as a teenager, which was both wonderful and perilous, our magnificent luminary Andrei Plesu cautions us when it comes to suggested reading
At seventeen one is overwhelmed by the magnum opus, indeed, at any age this is a challenge, and misunderstanding it is one of the issues- for instance, I had no idea that Proust was gay, and therefore the characters have a double identity, since he is the narrator and hero, the women he loves would have been men in real life
There are many benefits – many more than caveats I would say – of reading even when too young such a chef d’oeuvre, in my case, I am sure it helped with the attitude towards sexual minorities, I have mentioned I did not know about the sexuality of the author, however, he has written Sodome et Gomorrhe https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... which is edifying
We have talks at the sauna, and gym downtown, I was thinking that that serves the purposes of a café of sorts, we socialize there, and even indulge in ‘dialectical confrontation’, some are supportive of The Orange Atrocity’, because ‘he has taken down those LGBTQ+’ agitators and they like that so much, as to accept any abomination
There is this wide spread feeling, even belief that Woke culture has pushed them into a corner, they see the movies as making propaganda for alternative (read gay and the like) lifestyles, it is in the education, marches they have seen in the west, etc. and I am pleased that thanks to Marcel Proust I am comfortable in opposition to this
That is, I see that there has been excess on the progressive side of the argument, pushing maybe too far the request for inclusion, DEI and the like, only that effort was made to compensate for millennia of suffering, torture and death, I try to enlighten these interlocutors on the fact that gay and other minorities are still persecuted…
Not that this is happening all the time, mostly, I just walk out, since I cannot stand those radicals (strange that the Orange Eejit keeps screaming radical left lunatics, when in fact he is radical and lunatic) and it is useless to try and demonstrate almost anything to such hoi polloi, there are figures who are toxic, like second degree smoking or worse…
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
10 out of 10
A La Recherche du Temps Perdu https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... is the best chef d’oeuvre in my Top 100, although Kingsley Amis, at times Somerset Maugham have masterpieces that are close to the same level, and the letters of Marcel Proust prove the immense talent of this genius
I think it was in The Unbearable Lightness of Being https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... by Milan Kundera that I have read about geniuses: ‘we must limit the use of this significant word, there are only four or five, Leonardo da Vinci, Shakespeare, Albert Einstein…the meaning will be lost if we abuse it’
Albert Proust is nonetheless the quintessential genius, at least if you ask me, he has had a great influence, ever since I have first read A La Recherche du Temps Perdu, some of the volumes, as a teenager, which was both wonderful and perilous, our magnificent luminary Andrei Plesu cautions us when it comes to suggested reading
At seventeen one is overwhelmed by the magnum opus, indeed, at any age this is a challenge, and misunderstanding it is one of the issues- for instance, I had no idea that Proust was gay, and therefore the characters have a double identity, since he is the narrator and hero, the women he loves would have been men in real life
There are many benefits – many more than caveats I would say – of reading even when too young such a chef d’oeuvre, in my case, I am sure it helped with the attitude towards sexual minorities, I have mentioned I did not know about the sexuality of the author, however, he has written Sodome et Gomorrhe https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... which is edifying
We have talks at the sauna, and gym downtown, I was thinking that that serves the purposes of a café of sorts, we socialize there, and even indulge in ‘dialectical confrontation’, some are supportive of The Orange Atrocity’, because ‘he has taken down those LGBTQ+’ agitators and they like that so much, as to accept any abomination
There is this wide spread feeling, even belief that Woke culture has pushed them into a corner, they see the movies as making propaganda for alternative (read gay and the like) lifestyles, it is in the education, marches they have seen in the west, etc. and I am pleased that thanks to Marcel Proust I am comfortable in opposition to this
That is, I see that there has been excess on the progressive side of the argument, pushing maybe too far the request for inclusion, DEI and the like, only that effort was made to compensate for millennia of suffering, torture and death, I try to enlighten these interlocutors on the fact that gay and other minorities are still persecuted…
Not that this is happening all the time, mostly, I just walk out, since I cannot stand those radicals (strange that the Orange Eejit keeps screaming radical left lunatics, when in fact he is radical and lunatic) and it is useless to try and demonstrate almost anything to such hoi polloi, there are figures who are toxic, like second degree smoking or worse…
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
Displaying 1 of 1 review