@editions.sillage publishes a wealth of interesting titles, including at least ✌🏻 volumes that any proutien…

@editions.sillage publishes a wealth of interesting titles, including at least ✌🏻 volumes that every self-respecting proutien simply must be familiar with:

1) Mr Proust’s correspondence with J. Rivière, from 1914 to 1922. ✨

2) Marcel Proust’s letters to Reynaldo Hahn, which I’ll tell you more about later. ✨✨

Rivière was the magazine’s editor when the @la_nrf realised it had probably missed out on an important work by rejecting “Le Temps perdu” and allowing @editionsgrasset to publish Proust at the author’s own expense. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Proust was a reader of @la_nrf and believed that this was where the great writers of his time could be found. He and Rivière therefore got in touch, and a certain rapport developed from their very first exchange of letters. 📝

Jacques Rivière is a refined, diplomatic man. He is currently working on his first novel himself and regards the beginning of Proust’s magnum opus as something truly great. 📚🙌🏻✨

However, what do we see in these letters? We see a Proust who gradually becomes tyrannical, who negotiates his ‘transfer’ from @editionsgrasset to @la_nrf and then begins to manoeuvre to win the Prix Goncourt in 1919 🏆. Having won it, he proved rather obnoxious, and his outbursts against @la_nrf in April 1920 resembled the verbal tirades of a delirious Charlus, as proud as he was ridiculous. And this was the very man who warned Rivière against excessive pride…

We see Proust making the whole world feel sorry for him by constantly complaining about his health. 🤒🤧🤕😵‍💫 And don’t be fooled into thinking he’s interested in others for who they are: when Rivière tells him, happily and as if to a friend, of the birth of his son 👶🏻, Proust offers nothing more than half a line of polite response and shows no curiosity or interest in the news. Without a moment’s pause, he resumes his complaints. 😩
#ouinouin

It is clear from this that Proust sometimes viewed others merely as a means to an end. From the comfort of his bed, he manipulated everyone 😈 and “concealed his manoeuvres”: friends, publishers, everyone. He tormented Céleste, his mother, his brother, Gide (who loved it), Gallimard…

Anyway, we love you, Proust, but you’re a bit of a cheeky little rascal in your own way. 😘

#marcelproust #RTP #proustagram #autourdeproust @editions.sillage