Georges Bernanos Superb signed autograph letter to his publisher

  

SIGNED AUTOGRAPH LETTER [TO PIERRE BELPERRON]. 4 pages, 27.2 × 21.2 cm.

Trace of a paperclip and folds. In another hand, at the top: "This letter responds to a critique of the novel, part 2, by P.

Plon responds on 23/1/35 and 24/1. A very beautiful and rich letter to one of his correspondents at his publisher (Plon).

Urgently send me back the manuscript of 'Un Crime.' I have a proposal for you. Within fifteen days from the receipt of the said manuscript, I can completely redo the second part and make it accessible to Mr. Lebrun himself, the patriotic president of the super-french homeland, champion of Greco-Roman-Tarasconese civilization in the face of Eastern and Asian Barbarism, whose border is at Sarrebrück and Sarrelouis, as no one is unaware.

Fifty pages of new text will suffice, since the book is already, as you seem to think, a bit lengthy. This second part in the rhythm of the first, which delights the author of 'Débats.

' Everyone knows that I live day by day - alas! - and that I cannot put my family on a purely water regimen for two weeks. In return, I commit to not using the current second part, from which it will be easy for me to derive a hundred-page tale for the collection of short stories to be published later by you. Thus your house, as it should, will not lose the value of these pages, already paid for by it.

From the point of view of my profession, which I have the (ridiculous, it is true) pretension to know little [sic], but just as much as the louse [Footnote: "I say: LOUSE"] of the baptismal font Marcel (Gabriel), this is the only possible solution. I do not deny that having started a detective novel I should have persevered in this noble endeavor. It’s always the trick of Mouchette starting over, and about Mouchette’s stories, I could throw ten at you per year. The kids manage to get by.

Don't pity me: I am very happy. 'Necessity' is draining my brain through my nose and ears. Four or five years of this regime will rid me permanently of this organ that has only ever given me trouble, and when I have nothing but a pair of buttocks to think with, I’ll go seat it at the Academy. Please be kind enough to telegram me that Maison Plon accepts the above proposal. I will get started the same day.

These uncertainties are very detrimental to my work, what’s the point? You announce three thousand francs in your nice letter, and I have only received two thousand. Now, as you will find easy to convince yourself, the pages I have given you have, if not more text than the previous ones in the last three months. If the margin is wider, the format is different. A simple juxtaposition of the sheets will prove it.

I truly cannot believe that it is anything other than a misunderstanding. Now I am addressing a friend, for a personal favor, and even two.

1° I am summoned to Paris on February 5 (medical expertise). Since you are well with Pernot, who spoke of you with an enthusiasm that I can only attribute to an incredible psychological blindness, wouldn’t I have a way to get the said examination done elsewhere than in Paris? It is inhumane to impose on the poor invalid that I am, this trip, these expenses, this wasted time. 2° Most of the French present in Mallorca are dealing in land or love meat - sometimes both.

Do you think it is possible to get the authorities in Spain to speak about me? Either through the Society of G. Does a Society of G exist? My wife sends you her best regards, and I join my tribute to your charming wife, and our kisses to the Unknown Kid. Don’t joke about the book I am currently writing.

It is a great old beautiful thing that you should love. Fight for freedom, Plon, 1971, letter 365, pages 52-53 (significant omissions in the transcription; this letter therefore seems partly unpublished).

Dated January 20, 1935, by the editors of the text.