A tribute from a brother

A tribute from a brother 👦🏻👦🏻

🖋️ “However far back I may trace my childhood memories to that vague period when the first fragments of memory begin to take shape, I am constantly struck by the image of my brother watching over me with infinite, all-encompassing and, one might say, maternal tenderness. And, curiously enough, this touching image from that early period of our lives is almost always linked in my mind with that of the sun-drenched countryside. For at that time, when we were probably five and three years old respectively, his health had not yet been severely affected, as it was a few years later, which condemned him to shun the open air and springtime. 🌿🌺

Marcel’s boundless gentleness and kindness – characterised by a genuine need to give of himself to others, to lose himself in them – made him, quite apart from his marvellous intellectual qualities, an exceptional moral being. To me, he always had the brotherly and benevolent spirit of an elder brother, but beyond that I sensed in him something of the enduring legacy of our dear departed ones; and right up until his very last day, he remained more than merely the guardian of that moral legacy; he was my entire past; my entire youth was encapsulated in his very being. 👦🏻👨🏻

“The memory of all that had been was so deeply ingrained in him that all of us who loved him knew we could find him there, as if in a sanctuary.” 🏛️📚🕰️

— Robert Proust, “Marcel Proust: A Private Life”,
in Tribute to Marcel Proust, ⚰️🪦
@la_nrf @editions_gallimard 1 January 1923

#MarcelProust #RobertProust #Hommage #NRF #1erjanvier1923 #proustragram #ÀlaRechercheduTempsperdu #LeTempsretrouvé