Céleste Albaret was the first of the Proust devotees!
Translated from French.
Céleste Albaret was the first of the Proust enthusiasts! 🤩
Her encounter with “Monsieur Proust” in 1913 was, in fact, a blend of Christian revelation and Eastern charm… it was a true conversion! 🙌🏻 A modest young woman, originally from a small village in Lozère, whose upbringing was a mixture of superstition and peasant ‘common sense’, falls for an idle, homosexual, Parisian, agnostic and worldly man of independent means? 🫨
Céleste’s life was not meant to be that of a woman of letters. But following Marcel Proust’s death on 18 November 1922, his faithful maid became the living memory of the great author. 📽️📺
@laurehillerin, in her admirable biography, tells us about Céleste before, during and after Proust. Her family, her village, her values, her mother tongue and the geography of her native country. Her marriage 👰🏻♀️🤵🏻♂️ to Odilon Albaret, Proust’s chauffeur since 1907, whom he called “Monsieur Marcel” out of habit and affection.
For indeed, Céleste’s life story tells us of the affection that domestic servants could feel for their employers. Yet it is surely worth recalling that, around 1900, there were more domestic servants in France than there were factory workers.
Mutual affection, first and foremost. For they put up with one another, and that is either a miracle or a testament to the most steadfast resolve (perhaps a little of both). Secondly, it could be said that he regarded her very early on as a sort of heir to his legacy. He had predicted that she would bear witness to this period of his writing, and she shared both the enthusiasm and the frustrations of that time with him.
Céleste was there for Alfred/Albertine’s bereavement and lived through the war with him in Paris. She observed Gide, ‘the false monk’, the literary figures, the courtiers and the whirl of society figures surrounding the author. She remained by his side right up to his final proofreading and his last breath. 🛌
What she brings to the image of the great author, and what has contributed to his apotheosis, is quite simply the endorsement that the bourgeoisie receives through the adoration of his servant. By publishing “Monsieur Proust” in 1973, she bequeathed to Proustian studies a contribution that is by no means insignificant: a heavenly one. 🎈
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