Robert de MONTESQUIOU (1855-1921). Autograph manuscript, Not - Lot 223

Robert de MONTESQUIOU (1855-1921). Autograph manuscript, Note; 8 fol. pages (tabbed). Long text on Marcel Proust and À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. This comical and somewhat irreverent account of Proust's winning of the Prix Goncourt in 1919, and rather critical of Proust's work, is presented as a "Note" for the 3rd volume of his Mémoires, Les Pas effacés. The text is written in black ink over an early version in pencil, and features numerous erasures and corrections. "All of a sudden, it has to be said, there was a coup de théâtre, a stunt based on a staged play". The action was carried out by a dedicated group of three accomplices: Reynaldo Hahn, "Proust's séïde or, if you prefer, his Mahomet, a skilful director, consulted with him, organized the campaign plan at the back with one of those stubborn relentlessnesses"; Robert de Flers "ensured the Figaro, the eau-bénite lake of which he was the head"; finally Léon Daudet "was to arrive with an article-matraque with no possible resistance and concordant with the Prix Goncourt falling hard, without allowing any retort"... First there was the publication of an article "more than tendentious, announcing [...] 'a sensational re-entry' [...]; it was the second volume of Marcel Proust's work, inaugurated four years earlier by a rather nebulous volume". But Proust, furious that the article only appeared on the 2nd page, demanded that it appear on the cover again the following day: "this solid valetudinaire got out of his dodo like a devil from a box, threatened [...] to burst with rage, and immediately obtained this phenomenon". From then on, "the pulleys worked without creaking, the orchestra swelled in volume with all the crescendo and rinforzando required, right up to Daudet's article". Then "the price came down"... Montesquiou then turns to the work. "At first, the previous volume appeared to be a first part, to be followed by four others; in other words, the work would occupy our friend's entire existence. His style is hard to pin down. A fool - I named him Jacques Blanche [...] printed that it was a "vertiginous" work. It's impossible to miss the point, as is the habit of this foot-in-the-door mover. It had to be said: a meticulous, fastidious, [...] fastidious book. Montesquiou would have liked to quote the letter he then sent to Proust, "in all affectionate sincerity. [...] It seems to me that she had enough to please him, but [...] I think she fell into a crisis of megalomania. She marveled at this inexhaustible multiplicity of observation", and the many quotations he had chosen... Etc. And he concludes: "In the meantime, Marcel Proust will also be an Académicien de Goncourt and, my faith, one of the most remarkable; [...] the madré is so disconcerting and so cunning that we may well see him in the Académie Française, and perhaps even its perpetual secretary. The ones who always make me laugh are the workers of the last hour; I see some who realize that our friend was very nice; we knew it anyway".