You’re no doubt familiar with this photograph 🎞️ of Marcel Proust as a teenager, taken by Paul Nadar (son of Félix…

You’re no doubt familiar with this photograph 🎞️ of Marcel Proust as a teenager, taken by Paul Nadar (son of Félix Tournachon, known as Nadar), dated 24 May 1887. But are you familiar with this “Postscript” from Marcel Proust to Daniel Halévy, in one of the first letters he wrote to him, less than a year later? 💌

Proust was not yet 17, and Halévy was only 15. Proust was in the final year of secondary school (now known as Première) whilst Halévy was in the second year (Seconde) at the Lycée Condorcet. 🏫

🖋️ “I’d like to suggest that we set up a major art magazine together (but still just the two of us as editors). 📰📚🖼️✨

— As for your virtual or otherwise p*d*raste, you could well be mistaken. I know… that there are young people (and if you’re interested and you promise to keep it absolutely secret—even from Bizet—I’ll give you some documents of great interest in this regard, which belong to me and were addressed to me), young men, and especially lads aged 8 to 17, who love other lads, always want to see them (like me, Bizet), cry and suffer when they’re far from them 💔, and who long for only one thing: to kiss them and sit on their laps; who love them for their physical selves; who gaze at them adoringly; who call them ‘darling’ or ‘my angel’ in all seriousness; who write them passionate letters; and who, for nothing in the world, would ever engage in p*d*rasty.

“Yet generally speaking, love wins out and they m*st*rbe together. But don’t mock them or the person you’re talking about, if that’s how he is. They’re, after all, lovers. And I don’t know why their love is more sordid than ordinary love.” ❤️‍🩹

To the right of the portrait of Proust is that of Jeanne Proust (née Weil), his beloved “Mum”, whom he is so afraid of disappointing by confessing his homosexuality to her. 👨🏻‍❤️‍👨🏻

#MarcelProust #DanielHalévy #Proust #proustagram #CorrProust #1888 #1887 #Nadar