Proust in Love by William C. Carter

Author:William C. Carter
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Literary Studies, Amazon.com
ISBN: 9780300108125
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2006-05-10T15:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Grieving and Forgetting

In the late fall of 1913 the relationship between Proust and Agostinelli finally reached the breaking point, but, not surprisingly, it was Agostinelli who made the decisive move. On December 1, Alfred and Anna fled 102 boulevard Haussmann and headed for Monte Carlo, where Agostinelli's father, Eugene, lived.' Celeste Albaret believed that Anna was largely responsible for the sudden departure of the Agosti- nellis because she did not like living in Paris and was eager to return to the Riviera.

Distressed and angry, Proust appealed immediately to Nahmias for help, sending him a letter containing a "strange question." Had he ever used private detectives to have anyone followed, and, if so, could he give Proust their names and addresses? Stressing the urgency of the situation, Proust asked him to call "not to talk" about the matter "openly on the telephone, but I could perhaps question you cryptically about an address."'

Mad with impatience and jealousy, Proust began to live scenes from a cheap detective novel: He hired a private eye in Monte Carlo to keep him informed of the whereabouts of Agostinelli and his father, then dispatched Nahmias to the Riviera with instructions to bribe Eugene Agostinelli to persuade his son to return to Paris. Proust knew that Alfred would categorically reject any overtures and offers made directly to him. Nor would the young man agree to come back if he knew that Proust had paid his father. Thus it was imperative that Nahmias keep the negotiations secret.

For a period of five days Proust and his emissary exchanged long, cryptic telegrams under assumed names and elaborate cover stories: one maintained the fiction that Nahmias had gone to the coast on a mission for his own father; another involved an alleged major, secret stock market speculation. On December 3 Proust telegraphed Nahmias, under the young man's real name, at the Hotel Royal in Nice. The wire provided the Monte Carlo address of Eugene Agostinelli, who ran a hotel at 19 rue des Moneghetti. Proust ordered Nahmias to act quickly because his source had informed him that Eugene was to leave the following morning for Marseilles. Nahmias was to offer a hefty monthly payment to the father for persuading Agostinelli to return immediately to Paris, without being told why, and to remain there until April. Above all, Nahmias must remember not to offer the money directly to Agostinelli (not named in Proust's wire) because he would certainly refuse it. And Nahmias must forcefully deny any suggestions on Agostinelli's part that incentives of any sort had been offered to his father. Proust signed the telegram "Max Werth." The importance of the April date is unclear; perhaps he believed that Agostinelli might agree to a temporary return, thus allowing Proust to regain some control over the situation.

It is true that love makes fools of us all, but never have we seen Proust so naive as he was in pursuit of the fugitive Agostinelli. Perhaps he enjoyed to some degree the role of the suspicious, jealous older man tracking down the elusive beloved.

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