Ernest Forssgren
William C. Carter (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300114638
- eISBN:
- 9780300133363
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300114638.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
The memoirs of Ernest Forssgren (1894–1970), the young Swede who served as Marcel Proust's last valet, provide new insights into Proust's life and death. Previously, Forssgren's memoir has been ...
More
The memoirs of Ernest Forssgren (1894–1970), the young Swede who served as Marcel Proust's last valet, provide new insights into Proust's life and death. Previously, Forssgren's memoir has been published only in excerpts, in French, with serious omissions and alterations. This book presents the complete text of the memoir. Also included here is other new material: the inscriptions that Proust wrote for Forssgren's copy of Swann's Way; an important telegram that Proust sent Forssgren, which defines with greater precision the novelist's activities in the final months of his life; Forssgren's “Summary” of the first English biography of Proust, by George D. Painter, which provides many new details about Proust's last trip to Cabourg in 1914 and his attempts at seducing young men of the servant class; and the notes that Forssgren made in his copy of Painter's biography.Less
The memoirs of Ernest Forssgren (1894–1970), the young Swede who served as Marcel Proust's last valet, provide new insights into Proust's life and death. Previously, Forssgren's memoir has been published only in excerpts, in French, with serious omissions and alterations. This book presents the complete text of the memoir. Also included here is other new material: the inscriptions that Proust wrote for Forssgren's copy of Swann's Way; an important telegram that Proust sent Forssgren, which defines with greater precision the novelist's activities in the final months of his life; Forssgren's “Summary” of the first English biography of Proust, by George D. Painter, which provides many new details about Proust's last trip to Cabourg in 1914 and his attempts at seducing young men of the servant class; and the notes that Forssgren made in his copy of Painter's biography.
William C. Carter
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300108125
- eISBN:
- 9780300134889
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300108125.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter gives an account of Marcel Proust's liaison with Lucien Daudet, a young man with similar neurotic tendencies as Proust—often moody and temperamental. Daudet had ambitions to be a painter ...
More
This chapter gives an account of Marcel Proust's liaison with Lucien Daudet, a young man with similar neurotic tendencies as Proust—often moody and temperamental. Daudet had ambitions to be a painter and was often disturbed by Proust during art class in order to arrange the meetings between them. This obvious interest in Daudet would incur the jealousy of his love Reynaldo Hahn, but Proust would do nothing to discourage the idea that he preferred to spend his time with Daudet rather than Hahn. It would be a betrayal that would prove costly for Proust. This chapter thus relates the latter half of Hahn and Proust's relationship, one that would be riddled with jealousy and scorn, up until its end. This experience of jealousy, however, would later come out in his writing of Swann's Way wherein Louis de Robert would tell Proust his praise of a study of jealousy incomparable to any other in their literature.Less
This chapter gives an account of Marcel Proust's liaison with Lucien Daudet, a young man with similar neurotic tendencies as Proust—often moody and temperamental. Daudet had ambitions to be a painter and was often disturbed by Proust during art class in order to arrange the meetings between them. This obvious interest in Daudet would incur the jealousy of his love Reynaldo Hahn, but Proust would do nothing to discourage the idea that he preferred to spend his time with Daudet rather than Hahn. It would be a betrayal that would prove costly for Proust. This chapter thus relates the latter half of Hahn and Proust's relationship, one that would be riddled with jealousy and scorn, up until its end. This experience of jealousy, however, would later come out in his writing of Swann's Way wherein Louis de Robert would tell Proust his praise of a study of jealousy incomparable to any other in their literature.
William C. Carter
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300108125
- eISBN:
- 9780300134889
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300108125.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter tells the account of Alfred Agostinelli's later influence in the life of Marcel Proust. In the spring of 1913, Agostinelli sought and appealed to Proust for work. But as Proust had ...
More
This chapter tells the account of Alfred Agostinelli's later influence in the life of Marcel Proust. In the spring of 1913, Agostinelli sought and appealed to Proust for work. But as Proust had already hired Odilon Albaret as his regular driver, Agostinelli was instead given the position of Proust's secretary, aiding in the preparing the typescript of Swann's Way. The chapter recounts how Proust showered Agostinelli with money, and of how the two confided in one another, and of Proust's eventual fall for the young, athletic Italian. The chapter then links Agostinelli to Proust's writing of Albertine. The chapter also talks about the lovesickness that Proust would experience, especially in the eventual publication of Swann's Way, where in a letter to his literary friend Louis de Robert, Proust would mention this lovesickness over Agostinelli.Less
This chapter tells the account of Alfred Agostinelli's later influence in the life of Marcel Proust. In the spring of 1913, Agostinelli sought and appealed to Proust for work. But as Proust had already hired Odilon Albaret as his regular driver, Agostinelli was instead given the position of Proust's secretary, aiding in the preparing the typescript of Swann's Way. The chapter recounts how Proust showered Agostinelli with money, and of how the two confided in one another, and of Proust's eventual fall for the young, athletic Italian. The chapter then links Agostinelli to Proust's writing of Albertine. The chapter also talks about the lovesickness that Proust would experience, especially in the eventual publication of Swann's Way, where in a letter to his literary friend Louis de Robert, Proust would mention this lovesickness over Agostinelli.
