BOOK DEDICATIONS
La Mort de Baldassare Silvande (Published in la Revue hebdomadaire 29 October 1895)
To Madame Georges de Porto-Riche:
To Madame de
Porto-Riche, in the absurd hope that a true aim and a word
endured, mingles our dreams for a moment.
A friend of your son's,
Marcel Proust.
Les Plaisirs et les Jours 1896
To Madame Arman de Caillavet:
"... one of those women who, nourished by the sweetness of luxury and the arts... give to life, with the spice of their intelligence... a delicate flavour which we would not have known without them... Having the soul of a philosopher... without losing any of her pride or her grace. You could not meet a sweeter person. There is no more gracious supporter... (Anatole France: La Vie littéraire); in assuring her of my respectful and grateful friendship, and always thinking of her, chosen by the author of Lys rouge, in the famous line: the friendship of a great man is a favour from the Gods. Marcel Proust."
To Robert Proust:
"Oh brother, more dear than the light of day (Corneille)."
To Pièrre Lavallière:
"...this particular copy deserves a special dedication. A book read by you, especially a copy of one of my books, is not like any other... "
To Alphonse Darlu:
"With grateful admiration and friendship. Your respectful pupil. Marcel Proust."
To Gaston Bérnardi:
"To Monsieur Gaston Bérnardi, with respectful and profound gratitude. Marcel Proust 14 April 1896."
To Laure Hayman:
"To Madame
Laure Hayman, for the infinite delicacy of her heart, her beauty
and her incomparable wit.
Her friend, Marcel Proust. June 1896."
To Léon Yeatman:
"To Léon Yeatman. In the memory and the hope of a true friendship. Marcel Proust."
To Vincent Griffon:
"To Monsieur Vincent Griffon as a token of my ardent affection, your faithful and attentive friend, Marcel Proust."
To Bertrand de Salignac Fénelon:
"To Bertrand
de Salignac Fénelon, in the hope that he will come to equal the
great literary name that he carries, and in the less certain hope
of becoming his friend. Marcel Proust.
30 October 40 minutes past midnight."
To Antoine Bibesco:
"To Antione
Bibesco, whom I love and admire.
The 30th October 1901, ten o'clock in the evening.
'Goodnight sweet
Prince
and flights of angels
sing thee to thy rest.'
(Hamlet!)
Marcel Proust.
Frankly it's only good enough to keep in the lavatory (this
copy)."
[on the back]:
"To Antoine Bibesco. This photograph of me is from an era when he did not know me."
To Jules (?):
"To Monsieur Jules, with sympathetic and very grateful respects from the author, Marcel Proust. 14 February 1903."
To Nicolas Cottin (in September 1909):
"To Nicolas Cottin, to cheer ourselves up from the first days of weariness for his wife in Champignol in spite of us."
[allusion to the play Champignol malgré lui by G. Feydeau & Desvallières, revived at L'Ambigu, 10 June 1909]
La Bible d'Amiens 1904
To Anatole France:
"In homage of my infinite admiration, my respectful affection and my gratitude for a kindness impossible to forget. Marcel Proust."
To Mme Arman de Caillavet:
"In respectful homage. Marcel Proust."
To Mme Staus:
"his respectful and grateful admiration. In homage to the most lively and profound attachment. Marcel Proust."
To Émile Mâle:
"In homage to a profound admiration. Marcel Proust. (I have taken the liberty, Sir, of quoting from your book constantly, and on every page in chapter IV)."
To Mlle Marguerite Thomson [or Kiki Bartholini?]:
"I was going to write to Coco. But Reynaldo Hahn told me that he has left for Versailles... So if his response comes to you a little late, don't blame your respectful and profound admirer. Marcel Proust."
Sésame et Lys 1906
To Comtesse Chevigné:
"In respectful homage and admiration, Marcel Proust."
To Emmanuel Bibesco:
"... He doesn't understand the place between absence and invasion... practised at distant intervals and where he makes himself follow a horde of captives, captives with dark eyes and beautiful locks. All that doesn't seem to me a qualification for receiving this book... but actually my dear friend here is my reason: you are an angel to have sent me the address of Vuillard and Maurice Denis so quickly..."
To Laure Hayman:
"In memory of a deep affection."
To M. and Mme R. de Madrazo:
"To Monsieur and Madame R. de Madrazo. With respectful homage from their admirer, Marcel Proust."
To Abel Hermant:
"To Abel Hermant, his admirer and friend. Marcel Proust."
Quatre Evangiles, by Emile Zola
Sent to Collette, October 1911:
"In memory of an unbeliever."
Du Coté de chez Swann 1913
To René Blum:
"Dear René, I want you to have this rather elegant first edition which Grasset sent me. In this way you get back the book which you brought forth, with such a noble gesture, consecrated by a great artist, and who carried forth the head of Orpheus. Your grateful friend, Marcel Proust... "
To Robert Proust:
"To my little brother, in memory of lost time, recovered for a moment each time we are together. Marcel."
To Gaston de Caillavet:
"your old friend Marcel Proust." Attached letter: "Dear Gaston, I am delighted with your award. And as I am very ill I am not sending you lengthy congatulations, but I assure you that they are very ardent and strongly felt and it makes me rejoice to know you as "officer", it's the same deep affection I had for you when you were a soldier, and you wrote to me "dear Sir", so that I loved you already. Best to you, Marcel Proust."
To Walter Berry:
"The fatum of this little book wished that through you it goes to the one who exhumed the Guermantes from their tombs and attempted to reignite the brilliance of their name."
To Jean-Louis Vaudoyer:
"Your letter filled me with joy and yet I am very unhappy at the moment... "
To Bertrand de Salignac-Fénelon:
"My dear Bertrand, I sent a first edition to Cuba on the first day. Now I hear that you are in Paris. So I am sending you a copy of the new printing, in the fear that my book would not reach the hands of one of the beings who I love most deeply. Marcel Proust."
To Madame Straus:
"To Mme Emile
Straus, the only one of the beautiful things that I loved already
at the period in which this book begins, for whom my admiration
has not been changed, any more than has her beauty, her
perpetually youthful charm.
With respectful homage.
Marcel Proust."
To Dr Abel Desjardins:
"To my childhood friend Docteur Abel Desjardins, Marcel"
A l'Ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs 1918
To 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 to 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 Reynaldo Hahn:
"To Funibel, the most beloved, the kindest genius. Your old pony has now become a horse but still remains faithful. Marcel."
To Daniel Halévy:
"... 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... One wonderful letter which he wrote to me several years ago showed the opposite because it was written in spite of his ideas..." This dedication ends: "Don't imagine "my part" 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 Mme Catusse:
"These flowers - young girls or not - are 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... 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 it in memory of my mother."
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 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."
Pastiches et Mélanges 1919
To André Gide:
"Dear friend, undoubtedly you know the whole story of removals, aggravated illness, the monopolization of my books by libraries which has prevented me from sending you a first edition until now. I would really like to know your address so that I can see you a bit. Your admirer and friend Marcel Proust."
To Léon Daudet:
"In homage of admiration and gratitude. Your friend Marcel Proust."
To André Beaunier:
"I should like to write to you at greater length, but I am terribly ill... I send you this care of the Écho de Paris where you write while I still have my eyesight and can read the papers... The Saint-Simon pastiche is new, the Balzac totally changed. You already know the others."
To Robert de Montesquiou:
"In homage of an admiring and respectful attachment. Marcel Proust. I have indicated (p.73) where the portrait of you starts. It is only an unfinished sketch, in which however I hope you will recognise my steadfast ardour."
On page 73 Proust wrote: "Dear Sir, it starts here."
To Madame Straus:
"To Madame Straus, this second edition so
that she will be able to see her portrait (a first sketch which
will be continued), while I wait until I have a first edition.
In homage of my respectful admiration and tender and grateful
affection.
M.P."
Le Côté de Guermantes I 1920
To Léon Daudet:
Written after the printed dedication to Daudet: "to the author of so many masterpieces and incomparable friend in testament to my gratitude and admiration."
"... to which I add a tenderness which I dared not express in the printed dedication in case you accused me of over familiarity..." At the top of the page he also wrote: "I beg you to place my respectful gratitude at the feet of Mme Léon Daudet."
To Colette:
"In homage of admiration and deep gratitude (I can't write more I have a fever of 41 etc) your respectful friend. Marcel Proust."
To Céleste Albaret:
"To my dear Céleste, my faithful friend of eight years, but in reality so united in my thoughts that it would be more true to call you my friend of always, no longer being able to imagine that I haven't always known you, understanding her excuse for a spoilt child in his daily caprices, to Céleste croix de guerre because she endured Gothas and Berthas, to Céleste who has endured the cross of my moods, to Céleste croix d'honneur. Your friend Marcel."
To Comtesse de Chevigné:
"Madame, it is true that wanting a book in which there is so much of you, being on a singular paper and in a copy fit for you, I have lost much time..." "you attach more importance to reams of paper than than to memories of the heart..." Attached letter: "I do not write to you but I write only about you... I guard the ineffaceable trace of enchanted moments..."
To Madame Straus:
"To Madame Emile Straus with repectful homage and grateful admiration."
Le Côté de Guermantes II 1921
To Jacques de Lacretelle:
"My dear Jacques, it was very wearisome of you not to have told me the page which I was going to copy out. That will entail a new appointment. I am delighted. But this has delayed my sending you a copy. Affectionately yours with the highest esteem for your flawless and limitless intelligence. Marcel Proust."
To Robert de Rothschild:
"Dear friend, I have taken a long time before replying to you. But I was trying to unearth such a rare edition that... it doesn't exist! But there would be no merit in searching - and from one's bed - if it weren't to lay one's hand on the untraceable. Here it is. - Let us continue to decline the verb to find. You will find at a dinner further on pheasants less beautiful than yours, the imaginary Royal Dutch, a Princesse de Parme who is not noble and your own people, and above all "find" here the token of my faithful friendship. Marcel Proust."
To Monsieur and Madame Straus:
"To Monsieur and Madame Emilie Straus,
begging them to read the episode about the red shoes which I went
to fetch one evening, and not to forget, ever, the respectful
affection of their grateful friend.
Marcel Proust."
Sodome et Gomorrhe 1922
To Maurice Barrès:
"In homage of my deep and respectful admiration, gratefully yours, Marcel Proust."
To Comtesse de Noailles:
"Miraculous incarnation in a female body of the genius of Hugo, Vigny, Lamartine. Respectful homage from one who could always call himself her friend, in the blessed and always favoured days. Marcel Proust."
To Jean-Louis Vaudoyer:
"I cherish the luminous memory of one morning when you affectionately guided my tottering steps towards that Vermeer where the gables of the houses "were like precious Chinese objects"."