Lettre de Vernon Lee à Mary Robinson - 15 décembre 1925

Auteurs : Lee, Vernon (Violet Paget)

Information générales

LangueAnglais

CoteBibliothèque Nationale de France, Manuscrits, Anglais 247

Nature du documentLettre autographe manuscrite

Collation8 pages recto verso

Support

Papier blanc
Photographie N & B

Etat général du documentBon

Localisation du documentBibliothèque Nationale de France, Manuscrits, Paris

Les folios

En passant la souris sur une vignette, le titre de l'image apparaît.

8 Fichier(s)

Les mots clés

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

Dossier génétique

Ce document n'a pas de relation indiquée avec un autre document du projet.

Citer cette page

Lee, Vernon (Violet Paget), Lettre de Vernon Lee à Mary Robinson - 15 décembre 1925, 1925-12-15. Holographical-Lee, Sophie Geoffroy, Université de La Réunion ; projet EMAN (Thalim, ENS-CNRS-Sorbonne nouvelle). Consulté le 17/05/2024 sur la plate-forme EMAN : https://eman-archives.org/HoL/items/show/1321

Texte & Analyse

AnalyseCritique favorable de la biographie de Racine par Mary Duclaux

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.

Notescontient 3 photos-cartolinas

Contributeur(s)

Geoffroy, Sophie (édition scientifique)
Miteran, Cécile (transcription et indexation)
Walter, Richard (édition numérique)

Présentation

Date1925-12-15

GenreCorrespondance

Mentions légales

Document: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Manuscrits
Fiche : Holographical-Lee, Sophie Geoffroy, Université de La Réunion ; projet EMAN (Thalim, ENS-CNRS-Sorbonne nouvelle). Licence Creative Commons Attribution – Partage à l’Identique 3.0 (CC BY-SA 3.0 FR)

Editeur de la ficheHolographical-Lee, Sophie Geoffroy, Université de La Réunion ; projet EMAN (Thalim, ENS-CNRS-Sorbonne nouvelle)

PublicationInédit

Informations éditoriales

DestinataireRobinson, Mary

Persons cited

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

Contexte géographique

Fiesole
Villa Il Palmerino

CouvertureFlorence, Italie

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Notice créée par Sophie Geoffroy Notice créée le 21/09/2018 Dernière modification le 23/08/2021