Letter to Joseph Reinach, 25? January 1905: "I would very much like to write a small eulogistic article for Le Siècle about my friend Gabriel de La Rochefoucauld's novel, L'Amant et le Médecin. Do Le Siècle publish articles of this type? And if so do you think they would take one from me?"

   Reinach presumably gained agreement for the article, but in his next letter Proust makes his excuses for not writing it for Le Siècle (ill health caused by his Ruskin work). Kolb suggests the actual reason was that Proust thought it could hinder his acceptance as a member of the Cercle de l'Union. He then takes up the idea again:

   Letter to Gabriel de La Rochefoucauld, 16 March 1905: "Forgive me for bothering you incessantly with this business about an article, but it reflects a great desire on my part to talk about your book. [...] I could always write back to Reinach. You remember he offered me Le Siècle. But at the time we were hoping for something better, Le Figaro, or somewhere else, so we gave it up." He goes on to suggest submitting the article to Gil Blas, Le Petit Parisien, Le Figaro or La Presse.

No trace of the article has yet been found and it is not known whether it was ever written.

 


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