Joyeux anniversaire, M. Proust

Marcel Proust was born on July 10, 1871.

One thing hurt me, which you certainly did not say out of malice! At the moment, when I am to publish Sodome et Gomorrhe, and when, because I talk about Sodome no one will have the courage to defend me, you (without malice, I am sure) blaze the trail in advance for all the mischief makers by calling me “feminine.” From feminine to effeminate is a mere step. My seconds in duels can tell you whether I behave with the weakness of an effeminate man. Again, I am sure that you said this without malice aforethought.

Marcel Proust, in a letter to Paul Souday, November 6–8, 1920. From Letters of Marcel Proust, translated by Mina Curtiss (New York: Helen Marx Books / Books & Co., 2006).

Paul Souday (1869–1929): journalist, literary critic for Le Temps. He wrote a largely negative review of Swann’s Way for Le Temps but later claimed to be the first critic to have discovered Proust. For a previous Proust letter to Souday, see this 2021 birthday post.

Proust, a duellist? In February 1897 he fought a duel with pistols with the writer Jean Lorrain, who had published a nasty review of Pleasures and Days. Neither man was hit. Proust’s primary concern “was not the bullets but having to rise, dress, and go out in the morning. Fortunately, his seconds were able to arrange an afternoon confrontation”: William C. Carter, Marcel Proust: A Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000).

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All OCA Proust posts (Pinboard)