First publication June 1906
To Maurice Barrès:
"To Monsieur Maurice Barrès
As a token of deep admiration and fervent affection.
Marcel Proust."
To Leon Belugou:
"To Monsieur L Belugou. Amicable and grateful remembrance. Marcel Proust."
To Henry Bernstein:
"To my dear Henry Bernstein. With all the warmth of my admiration and my friendship. Marcel Proust."
To Walter Berry:
"To Monsieur Walter Berry. Archivist of Dreams and
Treasurer of Fictions, Magician holder of the "Sesame" that
allowed a glimpse into the Library of the Guermantes and delivered into
reverent and grateful hands the volume sown with fleurs de "Lys".
And the appropriateness of terms is more exact still, since Ruskin
understood "Libraries and books" as "Kings' Treasuries". Salutations and
thanks, a King who has plucked for me a jewel from your Treasury.
Marcel Proust."
To Emmanuel Bibesco:
"Whit-Sunday.
To Emmanuel Bibesco, who is ignorant of the art of visiting and the
delicacies of friendship. He doesn't understand the middle ground
between absence - and invasion... (who almost comes to regret it)
practised at distant intervals and where he has himself followed by a
horde of captives, captives with dark eyes and beautiful locks. All that
doesn't seem to me a qualification for receiving this book, any more
than having just dined at the Baugnies'. But actually my dear friend
here is a reason: you would be an angel if you could send me as soon as
possible the addresses of Vuillard and Maurice
Denis. Your devoted Marcel Proust. I forgot two things, to express
to you my deep friendship and to ask you for René Blum's address."
To Jacques Emile Blanche:
"To Jacques Emile Blanche In admiration of the painter and the writer. His grateful friend. Marcel Proust."
To Henry Bordeaux:
"To Henry Bordeaux. His admirer and his friend, Marcel Proust."
To Princesse Rachel Bassaraba de Brancovan: (or Mme de Noailles?)
"To Madame Princesse de Brancovan. Respectful homage from her admirer Marcel Proust."
To Pierre du Breuil de Saint-Germain:
"To Pierre du Breuil de St-Germain in friendly remembrance. Marcel Proust."
To Comte Jacques de Briey:
"To Comte Jacques de Briey.
With my extraordinary esteem for his delightful and powerful talent, and
my profound affection for his person.
Marcel Proust."
To Stéphane Brossard:
"A copy for Stéphane Brossard to read in that room in Chateaudun pages 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20, and envying him his visit to the place I have loved so much. In affectionate memory of the author who regrets not being able to be his travelling companion. M.P."
To Ferdinand Brunetière:
"To Monsieur Ferdinand Brunetière. As a token of respectful admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Gaston de Caillavet:
"To Gaston de Caillavet. His grateful friend, Marcel
Proust
who is no longer able to go and applaud him in the rue Miromesnil as in
days gone by but who retains the same affection from days gone by."
To Princesse de Caraman-Chimay:
"Princesse, please read in the attached dedication all that you have forbidden me - all that I have forbidden myself - from printing. Your respectful friend. Marcel Proust."
To Madame Catusse:
"To Madame Catusse, as a token of respectful and profound friendship. Marcel Proust."
To André Chaumeix:
"To Monsieur André Chaumeix. As a token of admiration and gratitude. Marcel Proust."
To Léopold Chauveau:
"To Docteur Léopold Chauveau, to the [Ruskinian]? doctor in spite of himself, his very affectionate and very grateful [friend]? Marcel Proust."
To Comtesse de Chevigné:
"In respectful homage and admiration, Marcel Proust."
To André Chevrillon:
"To Monsieur André Chevrillon. As a token of ardent admiration for La Jeunesse de Ruskin and in friendly memory. Marcel Proust."
To Professor Jules Dejerine:
"To Monsieur Professor Dejerine. As a token of respectful gratitude. Marcel Proust".
To Abel Desjardins:
"To Abel Desjardins. His friend, Marcel Proust."
To Paul Desjardins:
"...his grateful and devoted admirer..."
To Paul Desjardins:
"To Monsieur Paul Desjardins. With my admiring and devoted respects. Marcel Proust. (Have you received my Bible d'Amiens my dear fellow?)"
To Lucien Fontaine:
"To Monsieur Lucien Fontaine who I would like to thanks (page 170 in the note) and who I have quoted several times from the Bulletin. As a token of his friendly attachment, Marcel Proust."
To Anatole France:
"To Monsieur Anatole France. With my highest admiration, with my deepest gratitude. His respectful friend, Marcel Proust."
To Robert Gangnat:
"To Robert Gangnat. In the hope of an invitation - and a friendship. Marcel Proust."
To Henri Gans:
"To Monsieur Henri Gans. A token of friendship. Marcel Proust."
To André Gide:
"To André Gide. In memory of those far off days. Marcel Proust."
To Charles Grandjean:
"To Monsieur Charles Grandjean to whom the deplorable state of my health alone prevents me from giving eternal proof of my affectionate devotion. Marcel Proust"
To Fernand Gregh:
"To Fernand Gregh. His admirer and his friend. Marcel Proust."
To Gaston Griolet:
"To Monsieur Gaston Griolet. In admiring and respectful tribute from the translator, Marcel Proust."
To Reynaldo Hahn:
"You take for a Coulanges what is merely a Thianges"
(Reynaldo Hahn)
"Why thirteen francs, I would have thought at least thirteen francs ten"
(Noailles Duc de Mouchy and Prince Duc de Poiux)
"Don't mistake a mortal possessed by the gods with a plain young
goddess" (Reynaldo Hahn)
Response
"What a scholar in the whole city
We could not, we could not find a more skillful man" (Doctor Cupid,
libretto by Charles Monselet after squinting Poquelin, music by Poise)
To Gabriel Hanotaux:
"To Monsieur Gabriel Hanotaux. As a token of respectful admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Laure Hayman:
"To Madame Laure Hayman. In memory of a deep affection. Marcel Proust."
To Jacques Hébertot[?]: (1917 or 1918)
"Monsieur, since I do not have the pleasure of knowing you
I don't dare allow myself to send you one of my own books. But
here at least is a translation I did long ago of Ruskin's Sesame.
It's symbolic title will recall to you that I showed you the "open
Sesame" of a Door that is usually closed and which you had not wanted to
open, behind which await you a few Sesame cakes, and if not
Ali Baba's treasure then your servant, Marcel Proust.
Another epigraph for a dedication
Dear Reader take from me only a little
For to meet does not form for us a vow
Sully Prudhomme: to the Reader."
To Abel Hermant:
"To Abel Hermant, his admirer and his friend. Marcel Proust."
To Charles Humphries:
"To Monsieur Charles Humphries. Sesame and Lilies. (Sesame which gives him access to the closed room. And Lilies in memory of those very beautiful ones in the rue Galilée)."
To Edmond Jaloux:
"Dear Sir, I was gravely ill for an entire year and couldn't tell you how much I enjoyed your delightful Jeune Homme au masque which I received in a sanatorium where I was forbidden from writing. I send you Sésame in admiring friendship. Marcel Proust."
To André [de] Joncières:
"To André Joncières. In memory of a happy day. Marcel Proust."
To Jean Lahor:
"To Jean Lahor. His admirer, his respectful and grateful friend. Marcel Proust."
To Gabriel de La Rochefoucauld:
"To Gabriel de La Rochefoucauld, his abandoned friend, Marcel Proust."
To Hubert de La Rochefoucauld:
"To comte Hubert de La Rochefoucauld. In sympathetic homage. Marcel Proust."
To Robert de La Sizeranne:
"To Monsieur Robert de La Sizeranne. Homage from his admirer, Marcel Proust."
To Georges de Lauris:
"To Georges de Lauris. Every day more affectionately, with growing reason to love him, and also a growing absence of reasons that increase that friendship of such consciousness and such unconsciousness to assure him more forcefully and more lastingly. Example of a phrase not to be imitated and that you can quote back to me every time I venture any criticism of yours. I win the right more than ever of telling you nothing... Marcel."
To Pierre Lavallée:
"To Pierre Lavallée. As a memento of a faithful and forsaken friend. Marcel Proust".
To Suzette Lemaire:
"To Mademoiselle Suzette Lemaire, to whom I have no need to offer a hand written dedication because she will find her name at the head of the second part of the book: Lilies of Queens' Gardens, which applies so well to her, being dedicated to the benevolent influence of the ideal woman, which applies so well to you, Queen, you who like to paint the lilies of your garden. Your respectful friend, Marcel Proust".
To Pierre Loti:
"To Monsieur Pierre Loti. As a token of respectful admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Pierre Loüys:
"To Monsieur Pierre Loüys. As a testimony of admiring sympathy. Marcel Proust."
To Fernand Lubet-Barbon:
"As a token of gratitude."
To M. and Mme R. de Madrazo:
"To Monsieur and Madame R. de Madrazo. With respectful homage from their admirer, Marcel Proust."
To Federico de Madrazo:
"No artist - and in saying this I am not at all excluding El Greco, has ever enchanted me as much as Coco has."
To Maurice Maeterlinck:
"To Monsieur Maurice Maeterlinck. In apology for having respectfully contradicted him in the notes to pages 80 and 81 and quoted a little throughout the preface and in the text, and in assuring him of my profound admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Émile Mâle:
"To Monsieur Émile Mâle. As a token of profound admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Comte Clément de Maugny:
"To Clément de Maugny. In fond memory. Marcel Proust"
To Comte Robert de Montesquiou:
"To Comte Robert de Montesquiou. As a token of admiration and grateful friendship. Marcel Proust."
To Louisa de Mornand:
"'Oh you whom I might have loved, oh you who knew it very well!' To Mademoiselle de Mornand. To my dear preferred admired one. Her friend, Marcel Proust."
To Eugène Mutiaux:
"To Eugène Mutiaux, as a token of profound affection, his godson, Marcel Proust."
To Albert [Nahmias?]:
"To my dear Albert, as a token of my profound gratitude. His friend, Marcel Proust."
To Dr Louis Nattan-Larrier:
"To Doctor Louis Nattan Larrier, his friend, Marcel Proust."
To Georges Neuburger:
"To Monsieur Georges Neuburger. In apology for an evening of deprivation, as a token - and above all in the hope - of friendship. Marcel Proust."
To Louis Parent:
"To Monsieur Louis Parent as a token of affectionate gratitude for the exquisite understanding of his youthful but already mature mind. His friend Marcel Proust"
To Joseph? Paul-Boncour:
"To Monsieur Paul Boncour. His admiring friend, Marcel Proust."
To Arthur Pernolet:
"To Monsieur Pernolet. As a token of respect to a
neighbour who is very close to him and very far away. Marcel Proust.
"If, parting with the companions that have given you all the best joy
you had on Earth, you desire the promise made to you from a time when
you could meet their eyes again and clasp their hands, where eyes shall
no more be dim, nor hands fail..." (The Bible of Amiens) (Ruskin)"
[Slight misquotation, made from memory by Proust]
To André Picard:
"To André Picard. His friend Marcel Proust."
To Émile Picot:
"To Monsieur Émile Picot. As a token of respect. Marcel Proust."
To Camille Plantevignes:
"To Monsieur Camille Plantevignes, for reading on the railway and with the hope that these pages about childhood will evoke for him a little that of his son and of his own. In grateful homage, Marcel Proust."
To Madame Georges de Porto-Riche:
"To Madame Georges de Porto-Riche. A book that Marcel will have perhaps read because I know that he has taken an interest in Ruskin. With infinitely respectful and fond best wishes. Marcel Proust."
To Comte Guiseppe Primoli:
"To Monsieur Comte Primoli. As a token of respect from the translator. Marcel Proust."
To Henri de Régnier:
[Proust insists on his] "[...] immediate admission to the Académie [...]"
To Joseph Reinach:
"To Monsieur Joseph Reinach eminent Ruskinian, with devoted homage from the translator Marcel Proust."
To Louis de Robert:
"To Louis de Robert. As a token of admiration. Marcel Proust."
To Raymond Roussel:
"To Monsieur Raymond Roussel, in affectionate memory. [...]"
To Jean Sardou:
"To Monsieur Jean Sardou
Extract from Ruskin:
"The most remarkable Turner I know depicts M. Jean Sardou coming out
of the Odéon in the oblique light of one of those glorious sunsets that
the painter excels in reproducing; since the young scholar is placed in
front of the stage door, the naive English spectator might imagine that
the uniform he is wearing is a theatrical costume, although it is not.
In actual fact it is merely the realization, in its watery appearance of
cherry-red velvet, of the scarlet rays that tinge the adjacent Salute in
Venice and in Dido at Carthage. It is in this way that Turner leaves
Salvator and Claude far behind, should he be thus obliged to lend to the
doctor and poet the appearance of a fallacious assistant major. Beside
him is a rather comical figure who is offering him a seat in a taxi.
Such at least appears to be the signification of the rather absurd
gesture that he has sketched. But perhaps this is not the case, the
background characters being added by Turner merely to extol it and of no
importance in his eyes. At the very least, the fumes of petrol rising
from the disdained taxi, does that not bestow a great beauty into the
the light that permeates through it in cascades of topaz and amethyst."
(Ruskin Modern Painters."
To Mme Straus: (1917)
"Dear Madame Straus,
as I dictated the address, the name of your home moved me almost as
much as your own. No part of the country is as permeable, as porous, to
feminine charm, as the Normandy countryside. And all the roads that we
travelled together, (by carriage or on foot, because it was so difficult
to get to Beaumont by motor car, since the day when I had come to spend
an afternoon with poor Fénelon and when you took me to Honfleur so
easily), are like the annexes to yourself, as dear to my memory, as
fused into my heart.
But more than anything else, of course, the houses that you had
stayed in there, the Manoir de la Cour brûlée, whose name, in all its
Aubernon-like romanticism, were inscribed by you on the pink cards from
the Trois-Quartiers, but above all the one that was created by you and
M. Straus, but which is closed to me by my ill health, by its distance,
and which once more before dying I should still like to rediscover, even
if it was just for an hour, the Open Sesame. This more fortunate Sesame
will get to see the sloping lawn, become imbued with the perfume of the
autumn roses, and will be received into your lovely hands which I kiss
respectfully.
Marcel Proust."
To Edouard Trogan:
"To Monsieur Edouard Trogan. As a token of grateful goodwill. Marcel Proust."
To unknown recipient: [Name erased]
"To M[onsieur?] T...[?]
His respectful admirer,
Marcel Proust."
To unknown recipient: [Dedicaction excised]
"[...]
Marcel Proust"
To unknown recipient: [Detatched letter-dedication inserted into a different copy?]
"The "Story" was from memory. It comes back from time to time just to infuriate me, put only in flashes, increasingly rarely, which will soon be extinguished - : As soon as I am feeling better I will send you the "Sesame" that will open my door, but until then perhaps I could come and see you, because here the smoke from the powders I burn make the air unbreathable and you would need one of those masks that protect against asphyxiating gasses. But I will try all the more to see you since I don't think I will ever return to Cabourg, so then we must see each other in Paris [...] your M.P."
Other known dedicatees: Lucien Daudet, Marcel Plantevignes, Eugène Montfort, Albert Le Cuziat, Ladislas Landowski, Gaston Calmette, Gabriel Mourey, Dr Daremberg, Léon Bailby, Maurice Denis[?],René Blum[?], Édouard Vuillard[?], Comtesse de Martel-Janville[?], Marie Nordlinger [lost?], Henri Cazalis.
Created 11.11.22
Updated 18.06.25