First publication January 1919. De luxe edition May 1920.
To Jules-Olivier Affolter:
"To Monsieur J. Olivier-Affolter. In very friendly homage from the author. Marcel Proust."
To Céleste Albaret:
"To the young woman in flower (no flowers without thorns, alas!) but, over the top of our blood-stained clothes, there smiles peacefully with her mirror-of-heaven eyes, a Joan of Arc-Récamier-Botticelli, who does not seem to be smiling at us, but what an error! Her husband, dear Odilon, leans forward like Titian in the painting of Laura Dianti. But, a mirror reflected by a mirror, it is not at Odilon nor at me that she smiles, but at herself. Marcel Proust."
To Louis d'Albufera:
"[...] As a memento of affectionate and grateful friendship.
[...]"
To Gabriel Astruc:
"To Monsieur Gabriel Astruc, who has promoted masterpieces
by Debussy, Stravinsky, Maurice Dennis, Bakst, who has established Boris
Godunov, and, in general, has made up for the failings of the
Opéra-Comique, and of the Opéra, by creating a unique theatre, a true
Temple of Music, Architecture and Painting, and who, so that out of
disaster might once more be exalted as the highest artistic endeavour, has
been gratefully acknowledged as we all know.
- More selfishly to the comprehensive and scrupulous reader of Swann,
ever yours, Marcel Proust."
To André Beaunier:
"To André Beaunier. Memento of a friend from whom only illness has separated him and who he remembers with affection and admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Émile Bergerat:
"To Monsieur Emile Bergerat, in admiring homage from the author, Marcel Proust."
To Walter Berry:
"To Monsieur Walter Berry, who will see appear in this book
- barely once more - some of those Guermantes who introduced me to him. As
a token of admiring affection. Marcel Proust.
I am awaiting a first edition of Swann."
To René Blum:
"To Monsieur René Blum, to the dear Godfather of these books. His tenderly affectionate and grateful friend. Marcel Proust."
To Élie-Joseph Bois:
"Dear Sir, you are too kind to have written to me. If I haven't sent you this book before it is because I have been searching for six months for a 1st edition for you, any other seems unworthy of you. Finally, after finding 4 or 5 first editions, I am going to send my book to Monsieur France and to Madame de Noailles. I will be very happy to see you soon so that you can see de visu the folly of your newspaper which every day since I got the Goncourt prize adds another year on my age to show that I am not unworthy of it merely on account of my talent. I see myself growing old with the rapidity of a character in a fairy tale. Your grateful admirer, Marcel Proust. 44 rue Hamelin."
To Marcel Boulenger:
"To Marcel Boulenger with whom I commune through Gérard de Nerval, despite the difference in our interpretations, our "rites" and "symbols". His admiring and devoted Marcel Proust."
To René Boylesve: (2nd edition)
"To Monsieur René Boylesve. As a token of profound admiration. I will explain to you my dear sir how it is that I only send you these books that nobody yet has received and how, the 1st editions having been monopolized by I don't know which library, I have vainly searched for months for one for you. Marcel Proust."
To René Boylesve: (1st edition)
"To Monsieur René Boylesve. Dear sir, I have finally found a 1st edition. I am sending it to you. I have spoken to my editor. He is ready to revoke your subscription to the Original Editions. And I will send you those ones of my books. But perhaps there are other authors whose 1st editions you want. I hope to thank you soon face to face for your delightful letter. Your grateful admirer, Marcel Proust."
To Mme Catusse:
"Dear Madame Catusse, these flowers - young girls or not - are not for me simply something that can rejuvenate a memory and guard against the grave. There is an after death as there is an aftermath of war. It has made me understand what I had a presentiment of, that everything on earth which Mama loved, everything most precious, best, is in you. When we spoke almost daily about you, I almost regret that nearly all the praises we bestowed on the unique gifts of your mind perhaps clouded for us what is so profound, so noble in your heart and which is the supreme measure of intelligence. Mama endlessly recalled to me the way you would sing: Let us take up arms for love, or your opinions be they on Balzac or on positivism. Could she have sufficiently guessed that one day, for the one she has left so wretched, so hopeless, you would show, because of her, in memory of her, such wonderful kindness, such sparkling intelligence and heart. The times when I adhere to recent - and very ancient - philosophies which maintain that the soul lives on, I lean towards it so that she might know everything I tell you, everything she owes to you. I wanted to tell you, from a pen dipped in the blood from my heart words which I think every day and which are more - I am sure you understand - more than a dedication, the supreme dedication. I have put all my heart into these pages. Receive them in memory of my Mother. Your respectful Marcel Proust."
To Jean Cocteau:
[Proust copied out a description of moonlight by Madame de Sévigné]
"[...] the Dostoevsky side of Madame Sévigné's letters [...]"
"[...] there are long works which are short [...]"
To Colette:
"To Madame Colette. In tender and astonished memory of Mitsou. Marcel Proust."
To Ernest de Crauzat:
"To Monsieur E. de Crauzat to invite him to taste with me this stopping place, very meagrely flowery, in a rambling Recherche de Temps Perdu. Your much devoted Marcel Proust."
To Léon Daudet:
"To Léon Daudet, who does not like my books which does not prevent me from worshipping his (See Pastiches et mélanges, p.37) and himself. His grateful friend, Marcel Proust."
To Lucien Descaves:
"To Monsieur Lucien Descaves. In homage from his admirer. Marcel Proust."
To Abel Desjardins:
[Dedication that Proust wrote on a loose sheet which he could insert in Swann or Jeunes filles en fleurs, but was less appropriate for Pastiches.]
"When I was still almost a child a joyous thing illuminated
the sad years: it was the gift from Abel Desjardins of a photograph on the
back of which he had inscribed these words: "To my best friend".
Unfortunately this joyous thing was poisoned for two years, because after
the words "To my best friend", there was this qualification "after (I no
longer remember the first name) X". This X, who in any case I had never
met, seemed to me the most enviable person in the world. But eventually,
without my ever knowing why this X had had for me the infinite kindness as
to lose favour in the eyes of Abel, one day Abel asked me for the
photograph back, then returned it to me with the words "after X" crossed
out. And I brought together in my blessings, Abel for having so much
goodness, and X for having been so much in the wrong.
The objects that remain from that distant period are quite dead for me, so
that recently, being obliged to leave Boulevard Haussmann, I burned
precious autographs, manuscripts of which no copies exist, photographs
that were now rare. But all of a sudden I stopped short in front of a
little boy with a sharp nose, a joking expression, with a three cornered
hat on his head and I cried out to the person who was putting to the
flames for me everything that I had brought out in great sacks: "Oh no!
not that one!" It was the photograph on which I was the best friend of
Abel, after X, then quite simply the best friend. And that I could never
burn, because it was still alive.
Marcel Proust."
To Robert Dreyfus:
"To Robert Dreyfus. In memory of the young girls in the
Champs-Elysées and at the balls, where we each loved a different girl but
both of whose names ended in I.
This still very incomplete Swann whose contour is perhaps even still not
perceptible. The pending volumes to come, not yet printed but written,
will make it all clear. His friend Marcel."
To William d'Eichtal:
"To Monsieur William d'Eichtal as a token of gratitude from the author. Marcel Proust."
To Horace Finaly: [De luxe edition]
"To my dear friend from days gone by and always, Monsieur Horace Finaly, in touching memory of those bygone days. Marcel Proust."
To Robert de Flers:
"To Robert de Flers. As a token of my tender, grateful and admiring affection. Marcel Proust."
To Anatole France:
"To Monsieur Anatole France. Nabi, ever beloved, for six months, in spite of three removals, in a terrible state of ill health, I searched for a first edition of this book for you. I finally found it and am sending it to you in homage of my admiration, thanks and most tender and respectful attachment, and most faithful memory of the Past. Marcel Proust, 44, rue Hamelin. While I am waiting to find a first edition of Pastiches, I am provisionally sending you an atrocious edition, I daren't put in a dedication, as I am waiting to find a first edition."
To Henri Gans:
"To Monsieur Henri Gans.
Dear friend, it seems to me that I gave you this book a long time ago. But
I think that was in it's initial form. Perhaps it will amuse you to have
it in its second, subdivided form, because bibliophiles have a
predilection for editions that are defective. And this subdivision, done
without consulting me, is in my opinion a mistake. In any case, I'm happy
to send you, whilst waiting for the soon to be coming Côté de
Guermantes, this renewed book, as a token of our ever renewed
friendship. Marcel Proust."
To Louis Gautier-Vignal:
"[...] To the poet of the Constellations and the Danaïdes [...]"
To Gustave Geffroy:
"As a token of deep admiration to Monsieur Gustave Geffroy. Marcel Proust."
To Henri Ghéon:
"Dear Sir, a month ago I wrote you a long (very complimentary) letter of ten pages about your book; and I spoke at length about you as well. But it seems to me rather imprudent to talk about one's state (as in religious state) through which one has not yet effectively passed and which one anticipates only through mind and heart, so that I feared I might have been fishing in my letter, through lack - or excess - of intelligence about your state. Except that I didn't send it you and, as I have fallen gravely ill since then, I haven't been able to write to you again. With my very best wishes, Marcel Proust."
To André Gide:
"To André Gide. As a token of friendship and affectionate admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Jean Giraudoux:
"To Monsieur Jean Giraudoux. If I have on my table a copy of
the N.R.F. which I show to everybody it is not (to say as you did about
General Anthoine) because there is anything of mine in it. It is to read
aloud the wonderful description of Provins gone mad, the rashly turned up
collars, the indissoluble union of Falconet and Natoire, and not without
making everyone admire the momentarily subsiding sun, the false Voulzie,
the Serbian attaché, the medical major. And here I am doing the thing I
thought I was most incapable of, reading it out aloud."
To Reynaldo Hahn:
"To Funibels, the most beloved, the kindsest genius. Your old pony has now become a horse but still remains faithful. Marcel."
To Daniel Halévy:
"My dear Daniel, Your arguments are sound, and above all it
is very kind of you not to have taken my letter "badly". I confess that
yours only partly reassures me. Precisely because something is done "out
of civic duty", it is very dangerous to adhere to false ideas, simply
because of the virtues of the people who hold them. Because there is not
much distance between adhering (in this way) to ideas, and giving carte
blanche to deeds. Your example makes it very clear that the essentially
Dreyfusard military were anti-revisionist because they knew what a good
man General Gonse was etc. and had more confidence in the General Staff
than in the Anarchists. In any case as for those men who "you have given
proof about for years etc.", I've read their names. Is there a single one
of them who could stand up to a bit of perceptive scrutiny?
I hasten to add that your judgement must be correct since I judge it with
the same emotion that I felt in Margaret Ogilvy when the old
lady says to her son: "Go and vote for your Gladstone's man". Besides,
when I say the "names" I really mean their signatures. It is quite true
that Francis Jammes enjoys the name of a great writer who has, or had, the
brilliant gift of imagery. But his Catholic point of view is such that,
even for him, one cannot give the stamp of authority to his signature (in
such a case). One wonderful letter which he wrote to me several years ago
showed the opposite because it was written in spite of his
ideas. Don't imagine "my situation" to be good. It is atrocious. I weave
nothing at all except my shroud, and so slowly, so painfully. Best to you
Marcel Proust."
To Abel Hermant:
"To Monsieur Abel Hermant. Dear friend, if I send books to the Figaro it is not that I address them to the Critic and not to the admired and beloved Master. But I don't know where you live at present. All the relevant information I might have had has been lost in the horror of my removals. And on the other hand it has had such a disastrous effect on my health that I don't have the strength to go and find out. I hope that by sending this sequel (which still leaves a lot before you see the whole) to Swann, to the Figaro, I might say to the book 'Off you go you poor migratory bird, may God direct you to your destination'. And to you: 'Read as much of it as you can'. In memory of Dear Coutras who made me weep so much. Marcel Proust."
To Jacques de Lacretelle:
"To Jacques de Lacretelle. In memory of the young girl from Provins who I did not know. Very affectionately, Marcel Proust."
To Valery Larbaud:
"To Valery Larbaud who I would very much like to know. Marcel Proust."
To Gabriel de La Rochefoucauld:
"To Gabriel de La Rochefoucauld. As a token of deep affection. Marcel Proust."
To Mme Lemaire:
"Dear Madame Lemaire, it is quite certain that I was not
visiting anyone (and was at home) one day that I would have been able to
be at your house. Had it not been I would have been with you. But it is
possible that I didn't have a motor car one Monday and that I had one on
Thursday, or that someone else had taken it. I would need to remember in
order to swear on it. You reproach Boni de Castellane to me, as you did
the Murats in the past. You haven't changed in your manner of reproaches;
besides the Murats... (I will send you Pastiches et Mélanges one
of these days. Alas that has put me out of favour with Albufera which has
pained me deeply. As for society I couldn't care less about it and I have
proved as much in Pastiches).
You speak quite lightly about my removals that in my cardiatic state put
me at greater risk that a soldier in combat and with less joy. But why am
I making recriminations when I feel nothing for you but tenderness and
admiration, did you not know, all those newspapers, and my articles, do
they not recall it to you, oh dear, oh great Madame Lemaire.
Your Marcel."
To Suzette Lemaire:
"... know that to me you will always be a young girl in flower (who never replies to my questions)... know that Reynaldo (who is in Cannes at the moment) and I remain the same for you, with the most respectful and the most admiring tenderness ... know that your mother is very ill-natured toward me and I love her no less for that. Your Marcel Proust".
To the Marquise de Ludre:
"To Madame the Marquise de Ludre, who was able so
benevolently to set upon Swann her flustered, ravishing,
attentive and lucid gaze, and to reflect onto this book better than
through the lens of an opera-glass, all the facets of her cloudless
intelligence.
To Madame de Ludre who I would so much like to see again and with whom I
would much prefer to chat face to face at the fireside, than this stroll
"in spirit and in truth" in the shadow of young girls in flower. Marcel
Proust."
To Charles Maurras:
"To Monsieur Charles Maurras. Dear Sir I only wanted to send you a first edition. For six months I have been searching for one in vain. Finally I have found some and I can send my book to Monsieur France, to Monsieur Barrès and to you. I can never forget that a long time ago you were the first person to speak, in such a delightful way, about Les Plaisirs et les Jours, and I have always retained an infinite gratitude for that article. Through the fault of the messenger you were never to know. And I found out too late when you had become such a "great man" that the over zealous expression of my gratitude would have appeared less purely affectionate than it was. Your grateful admirer, Marcel Proust."
To Robert de Montesqiou:
"Could such warm proof of friendship really succeed in hiding such a cruel treachery?"
To Robert de Montesquiou:
"To Monsieur Comte Robert de Montesquiou. As a token of an admiring and respectful affection which has not wavered for twenty five years. His loyal and respectful Marcel Proust."
To Paul Morand:
"To Paul Morand, whom I admire and love. My dear friend, as soon as I have found a first edition of Pastiches et mélanges, you will receive it. I hope to be well enough next week to see you. I miss you immensely, as well as a person dear to you. Your grateful friend, Marcel Proust."
To Madame de Noailles:
"Madame, after six month's of searching I am delighted to
have found this "first edition" for you. I didn't want to send you
anything other. I was delighted with your wonderful letter. I would so
like to see you. But you never get my messages or my telephone calls. Your
respectful admirer, Marcel Proust.
Yet another change of address 44 rue Hamelin"
To Robert Proust:
"My dear one,
In sending the dear lady an almost unique copy (soon to have almost
disappeared) I am letting you know that by the off chance I am awake this
evening, if you want to jump into Odilon's motorcar. But above all don't
inconvenience yourself, I've got absolutely nothing to tell you. But as
right now I am having one good day out of the ten when my attacks don't
let me do anything for the whole evening and the whole night I send you
all my affection. Marcel."
To Madame Marie de Régnier [Gérard d'Houville]:
"To Madame Gérard Houville.
The difficulty I find myself in finding first editions has prevented me
from sending out as quickly as I would have liked copies worthy of the
preferred two or three ladies I admire the most. A dreaded Society of
bibliophiles has monopolized the copies on "good paper" and bookshops that
I am unable to discover, all the first editions. And all of this pains me
to make such clumsy, ridiculous but true excuses to the sublime author of
Temps d'aimer."
To Madame Marie de Régnier [Gérard d'Houville]:
"To Her Majesty Queen of the Canaques (to whom the French, not knowing how to remember her name, have given this very pretty and justly glorious one of Gérard d'Houville) I send along with my heartfelt gratitude for her kindness, this finally located first edition. I hope soon to have one of Pastiches as well. And to remind her Canaque majesty that I am a no less fervent admirer of L'Inconstante, or Le Temps d'aimer than I am of Monsieur d'Amercoeur or of Bon Plaisir, I place at the feet of the Queen the homage of a faithful Canaque. Marcel Proust."
To Réjane:
"To Madame Réjane, to one who has lived the most beautiful life, to the creative spirit who has achieved a revolution in the art of theatre parallel to that which has brought back the novel and painting into the framework of Truth - to the Two Masks - to she who has inoculated us, through her Germinie, with the recurrent fever whose attacks come upon us frequently, in intermittences, and finishing with the most beautiful of her creations, to the mother of Jacques. Respectful homage from an insufferable tenant. Marcel Proust."
To Jacques Rivière:
"To Jacques Rivière
In grateful, profound, curious, impatient, anticipatory friendship - His
great devotee who comes to him, guided by the glowing memory of those
columns in the N.R.F. or of his book on Germany. Marcel Proust."
To J. H. Rosny the elder:
"To J. H. Rosny the elder. Dear Sir and Master, as I can't recall which volume I sent you after "L'Appel au Bonheur", your marvellous "Appel au Bonher", I am sending you all three although without, alas, having found the editions I was looking for. Your respectful admirer, Marcel Proust."
To Sydney and Violet Schiff:
"To Monsieur and Madame Schiff. In much affected gratitude
for that marvellously comprehensive but distant geniality from two
invisible guiding spirits and two patrons from that near but mysterious
Isle. Marcel Proust.
With the solemn declaration that Swann will become more sympathetic in the
next volumes."
To Paul Souday:
"To Monsieur Paul Souday.
The continuation of the book that he found too long already.
His devoted admirer.
Marcel Proust."
To Paul Souday: [De luxe edition]
"To Monsieur Paul Souday. This book that I was desperate to
find for him will give him less pleasure than his marvellous chocolates
gave me. I wanted to include with it, in order to demonstrate to him that
I have "renounced" a certain fluency of form, a book which came out in
about 1894 but was written, in truth, during class, Les Plaisirs et
les Jours. But that would have held up the sending of my little
present. When I had left college and finished my military service, some
fragments of what was to become Les Plaisirs et les Jours were
published in a little periodical. The only collaborators were Daniel
Halévy, Fernand Gregh, Robert Dreyfus, myself, and a single member who was
not part of our group of college friends, M. Barbusse, who sent us some
very pretty verses and was, I am led to believe, the future author of Le
Feu.
But whatever you do, don't mention Les Plaisirs et les Jours in
your articles. I disown it. Those pieces would never have been put into a
book had not, during a leisurely holiday at a château, the triple
friendships of M. Anatole France, Mme Lemaire and Reynaldo Hahn made me
bring them all together. M. France wrote a preface, Mme Lemaire provided
the illustrations and Reynaldo the music. Back then my sentences were not
what you describe as entangled.
Please accept, Monsieur, the warmest and most grateful admiration of your
most devoted
Marcel Proust."
To Princesse Soutzo:
"To Madame Princesse Soutzo. As a token of admiring and
respectful friendship, Marcel Proust.
Madame since the Nouvelle Revue Française have send me third editions I
have had some first editions sought out for you and a few friends. Here's
one of them. As for the Pastiches et Mélanges I'll have those looked for
when Céleste has come back from her niece's wedding (Céleste in an outfit
costing at least 1,500 francs). Anyway I will explain all that to you on
the first day I am a little less unwell. I miss you so much! How I love
you!"
To Princesse Soutzo: [De luxe edition]
"To Madame princesse Soutzo. It is a privilege of the artist who allows himself to situate a blessed memory wherever he likes, to place, on the most secret page of his book, the sad thoughts of mauve and yellow like an evening storm that has subsided, that he held for so long in his heart. All his disguise is for the good; sometimes he makes a shepherdess queen. Elsewhere the better to lead his readers astray he transports into the most mediocre surroundings a princesse's salon. You cannot have failed to recognize your own, my dear and incomparable Friend, in the one I portray here, enchanted by the Parsifalesque miracle of guelder roses. Swann instead of Soutzo is a voluntary misunderstanding, just as zibeline for ermine is a voluntary lapsus. Barely two or three of my friends, those that have the power to cause me joy or pain will appear in A la Recherche du Temps Perdu. You are perhaps the only one who, in the depths of your 'divans as deep as graves' has the power, I hardly dare say 'joyously' but I hope 'faithfully', to restore 'the tarnished mirrors, the extinguished flames'. Your respectful and grateful, Marcel Proust."
To André Steinhard:
"To Monsieur AndréSteinhard. In very friendly remembrance from his devoted Marcel Proust."
To Madame Straus:
"Dear Madame Straus, you who are the most admired, the most
beloved, you are receiving this book after it has appeared! It
is because I only had second and third editions, and wanted to find you
this first edition, I will speak to you (when I am a little less dead,
because I am at - 8 bis rue Laurent-Pichat, in a house where you
can hear every word spoken by the neighbours, where you know every time a
window is opened, where I have not slept for twenty days).
Your respectful and grateful
Marcel Proust."
To Mlle Tissot?: [addressed to a young girl of the society painter James Tissot's family]
"These young girls wreathed with the crown of youth into which it pleased Léon Daudet to interlace green laurel. Marcel Proust."
To Gustave Tronche:
"To Monsieur J. E. [sic] Tronche. His distant and grateful friend, Marcel Proust."
To Jean-Louis Vaudoyer:
"Dear friend, for the last month I have been searching for first editions of these two books, without finding any. Some library has monopolized them without scruple and taken them in secret. I have not sent any off, not daring to send second editions or worse to great writers or to dear friends. I have one first edition. I think I am going to send it to Régnier. I didn't go to rue de Rivoli, as you no doubt know. And in any case I have only come here (8 bis, rue Laurent Pichat) because of a change of residence. I would love to hear all your news. Your grateful friend, Marcel Proust."
To unknown recipient:
"In the flowery shadow
Marcel Proust"
Other known dedicatees: Mme A. Daudet, Jacques-Émile Blanche, Charles d'Alton, Gaston Gallimard, Berthe Lemarié, Léon-Paul Fargue, Armand de Guiche, Susan Lawrence, Jean Schlumberger(?), Jean Ajalbert.
Created 13.11.22
Updated 07.05.24