Another gem ✨ unearthed by Max for @ivressedelire.librairie in Quimper: the correspondence between Marcel…

Another gem ✨ unearthed by Max for @ivressedelire.librairie in Quimper: the correspondence between Marcel Proust and Daniel Halévy, first published in 1992 by Éditions de Fallois. 📔💌

🖋️ “At the start of the school year in October 1887, Daniel Halévy started Year 9 and, at the same time, joined the ‘big boys’ at the Lycée Condorcet. It was most likely at this time that he met two of these ‘big boys’: Marcel Proust, who was starting his final year, and Robert Dreyfus, who was starting his second year. The go-between was no doubt Jacques Bizet, Daniel Halévy’s cousin, who, like him, was in Year 9, but who had known Proust since childhood, whilst Dreyfus used to play with Proust in the avenues of the Champs-Élysées. 🌳🌳🌳

The 1887–1888 academic year was the period of closest friendship between Proust and Halévy, one that would leave them with unforgettable memories. Firstly, they collaborated on their first magazine, “Le Lundi”. Halévy wrote the editorial for the first issue and the farewell message for the last. 🗃️ Four articles were written by Proust. It does not appear that Dreyfus or Bizet wrote anything. The suspension of “Le Lundi”’s publication may have been due to a literary dispute between Proust and Halévy.

In the spring, Proust, who professed a “passion” for Bizet, sent Halévy poems and letters. Halévy, who was initially impressed by the quality of Proust’s style, became angry and stopped speaking to him for a month. He eventually made up with him, realising that Proust possessed genius and that this genius was linked to his flaws. 💔

During the summer, Halévy embraced the ‘decadent’ movement. This led, at the start of the 1888 academic year, to a fresh row with Proust. They exchanged poems. Halévy criticised the content of Proust’s poem, whilst Proust severely criticised the form of Halévy’s. Two new magazine projects, “La Revue Verte” and “La Revue Lilas”, came to nothing. 📗

During the academic year 1888–1889, Proust discovered high society and the demi-monde and gradually drifted apart from his classmates. In June, he passed his baccalaureate and left the Lycée Condorcet, where Halévy remained until June 1891.” 🏫

#DanielHalévy #JacquesBizet #RobertDreyfus #MarcelProust #proustagram #Correspondance #CorrProust #ITEM