Du côté de chez Ferval : Proust s’inquiète d’un précédent du drame du coucher

Abstract

Our aim is not to postulate a definitive theory, but simply to offer a parallel reading of two texts that Proust himself associated in a letter dated 1908 addressed to Marguerite de Pierrebourg, pen name of the novelist Claude Ferval, patron of a celebrated salon. In this letter, he describes a scene in the novel Ciel rouge in which the daughter of the protagonist tearfully awaits a goodnight kiss from her mother. He explains that he described a similar scene in a « rather old manuscript » which he may publish one day. The discovery of the Soixante-quinze feuillets brings into question the previously accepted idea that Proust, in writing that letter, was thinking of the drame de coucher of the Jean Santeuil. As Nathalie Mauriac argues, when he wrote this letter, « Proust could only have had in mind the scene he had just written in the Soixante-quinze feuillets ».

Keywords

• novel
• autobiography
• Proust (Marcel)
• drame du coucher
• Soixante-quinze feuillets
• Ferval (Claude)