Vernon Lee, Letter to Mary Robinson - December 15, 1925

Author : Lee, Vernon (Violet Paget)

General information

LanguageFrench

SourceBibliothèque Nationale de France, Manuscrits, Anglais 247

Kind of documentAutograph Letter Signed

Format8 pages; two-sided

Medium

B & W photograph
White paper

General condition of the documentGood condition

Document locationBibliothèque Nationale de France, Manuscrits, Paris

The folios

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8 File(s)

The topics

amitié, amitié (Grizel Bonde), critique littéraire (Mary Robinson; Mme Darmesteter; Mme Duclaux), finances, lecture (conditions matérielles), littérature, littérature (Mary Duclaux: The Life of Racine), paysage, Proust, Marcel

Genetic folder

Record

Cite this page

Lee, Vernon (Violet Paget), Vernon Lee, Letter to Mary Robinson - December 15, 1925, 1925-12-15. Project EMAN, Holographical-Lee, Sophie Geoffroy, University of La Réunion & Institut des textes et manuscrits modernes, CNRS-ENS. Consulted on 2025/06/24 on the EMAN platform : https://eman-archives.org/HoL/items/show/1321

Text & Analysis

AnalysisVernon Lee's laudatory appreciation of Mary Duclaux's biography of Racine

TranscriptionDec. 15 XXV R6

Dearest Mary. I hav’nt yet finished your Racine, but I want to tell you my indignation and loathing for the brute = fool reviewer in the Statesman. It’s merely a display of his having read a book about Racine which you don’t happen to mention ; on a par with the way reviewers correct one’s lapsus calami and (as so often !) one’s printer’s errors. Your book, my dear, is a beautiful, interesting, most persuasive (I mean that you make one take your view) a most delightful one. And I who say it am very ill-disposed to the Grand Siècle and all its works (except Molière of course! [and] La Fontaine, who owe nothing to it ; as you know Louis XIV is my a in [without] Patterns to me -- un and I cannot see -- or hear, in Racine anything beyond a (forgive the x sacrilegious words!) local celebrity suited exclusively for home-consumption (your translations often seem ever so much more interesting than the original French verse ! You have given colour, gesture, individuality -- but is that because I am English ?) What I want to say is that your work is wonderfully delightful -- I can find no other word. I was ill-disposed towards it owing to my av Racine boring me. And I have really had difficulties in letting the book go, refraining from it at undue moments : I have read it in the at meals -- the greatest of compliments, especially while having my solitary tea on the landing which is my winter sittingroom (it sounds cheerless but is delightful, warmed by the invisible calorifère and by the sun (when there is sun) through a big south window & with a view of Fiesole over cypresses through the (double!) window to the north), and of an evening, by the wood fire in my study, I have found myself (tell it not in [Path] !) laying down Le Côté de Guermantes to read you. By the way this course of (borrowed from Berenson) Proust may account for my involuted style….

Dear Mary, your book is delightful ! And I believe every word of it.

And And it is varied & alive : the terrible chapters on the Poisoning scare after the sweetness of Port Royal. ˆYour Racine is perfectly intelligible.ˆ The way you have brought in your Comparses Madame, Mme de Sévigné, St Cyr etc etc -- Boileau -- all alive.

In short I am very grateful for the pleasure your book is giving me; grateful also for the way you have carried out that tiresome money commission. Grateful for your affection and excellence dearest Mary. Indeed only one subject for gratitude is still lacking me, viz : that you should come and stay with me under this little roof not shown in this photograph and sit on this bench under the cypresses occupied by the photographer Grizel Bonde. My love and best wishes to Mabel.

Yours Vernon

[caption] Cypresses at end of my grasswalk & towered Villa of Maiano in the distance ; these cypresses are about 200 metres from my house.

Notescontains 3 photo-cartolinas

Contributor(s)

Geoffroy, Sophie (scientific edition)
Miteran, Cécile (transcription and indexation)
Walter, Richard (digital edition)

Presentation

Date1925-12-15

LiTypeAutobiography

Rights

Document: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Gallica
Record : Project EMAN, Holographical-Lee, Sophie Geoffroy, University of La Réunion & Institut des textes et manuscrits modernes, CNRS-ENS. Licence Creative Commons Attribution – Share alike 3.0 (CC BY-SA 3.0 FR)

PublisherProject EMAN, Holographical-Lee, Sophie Geoffroy, University of La Réunion & Institut des textes et manuscrits modernes, CNRS-ENS

PublicationUnpublished

Editorial informations

RecipientRobinson, Mary

Person

Berenson, Bernard
Boileau, Nicolas
Bonde, Grizel
de La Fontaine, Jean
Louis XIV
Mme de Sévigné
Price, Mabel
Proust, Marcel
Racine, Jean

Geographical context

Fiesole
Villa Il Palmerino

CoverageFlorence (Italy)

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Record created by Sophie Geoffroy Record created on 21/09/2018 Latest modification 23/08/2021