Proust’s Oriane - Princess Marthe Bibesco
‘Not only the French novel, but the whole of literature, owes much to those too rare women […] necessary to the production of masterpieces, as was […] Comtesse de Chevigné in the case of Marcel Proust.’ (Marthe Bibesco)
Princess Marthe BIBESCO. Proust’s Oriane. London: Falcon Press, 1952.
First English edition. Translated from French by Edward Marsh.
À la Recherche du Temps Perdu (1913-1927) is a loosely autobiographical novel set in Proust’s own fin de siècle Paris, telling the story of the decline and fall of the aristocratic ideal. One of the central characters of the book Oriane, Duchesse Guermantes, was inspired by three glamorous society beauties who together constituted Proust’s dreams of grace and elegance. The present book is the biography of one of them, the Countess Adhéaume de Chevigné (1859-1936), and it is one of the earliest studies which directly equates the fictive Duchess with the real Countess. Born Laure de Sade, the Countess was the great-granddaughter of the infamous Marquis de Sade. She was one of the brightest stars of the era, the most elegant Parisian grand dame, a friend of royals, a muse to artists, and the darling of the social columns.
Princesse Marthe Bibesco (1886-1973) was a Franco-Romanian novelist and society maven. She counted among her circle of friends several monarchs, British prime ministers, and other powerful figures. The princess also befriended artists and writers, such as Marcel Proust, Edith Wharton, Jean Cocteau, and other influential figures.
8vo, pp. xvi, 89; col frontis, 6 b/w col plates. Very good in a very attractive dust-jacket (short tear to rear face) illustrating an extremely elegant woman and her little dog, ‘l’oiseau de Paradis et son chien’, with the Faubourg Saint-Honoré at their feet. Obituary of Countess Greffulhe (1860-1952), one of Proust’s other muses, loosely inserted.