Correspondance

by Anna de Noailles, Marcel Proust

Quand Marcel Proust rencontre Anna de Noailles à la fin du XIXe siècle, celle-ci est auréolée d’une gloire à la fois poétique et mondaine que viennent encore rehausser sa jeunesse et sa beauté. Avant même de connaître ses poèmes, Proust est séduit par cette jeune partisane de la cause dreyfusarde, avec laquelle il partage en outre la constitution fragile qui fera d’eux des reclus magnifiques, isolés dans leurs chambres de liège. De 1901 à 1922, les lettres qu’ils échangent témoignent de leur amitié profonde et de leur commune admiration, de la façon dont ils se sont lus et influencés l’un l’autre. Le « Poète femme » et le romancier semblent se confondre quand Proust devient lui-même, aux yeux d’Anna de Noailles, le « prince persan sur la fleur de lotus » auquel il la compare dans la Recherche, où elle apparaît sous les traits d’une « princesse d’Orient, qui disait-on, faisait des vers, aussi beaux que ceux de Victor Hugo ».

263 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2021

About the author

Born Princess Anna Elisabeth Bibesco-Bassaraba de Brancovan in Paris, she was a descendant of the Bibescu and Craioveşti families of Romanian boyars. Her father was Prince Grégoire Bibesco-Bassaraba, a son of Wallachian Prince Gheorghe Bibesco and Zoe Mavrocordato-Bassaraba de Brancovan. Her Greek mother was the former Ralouka (Rachel) Mussurus, a musician, to whom the Polish composer Ignacy Paderewski dedicated several of his compositions. Via her mother, Anna de Noailles is a great-great-granddaughter of Sophronius of Vratsa, one of the leading figures of the Bulgarian National Revival, through his grandson Stefan Bogoridi, caimacam of Moldavia.

In 1897 she married Mathieu Fernand Frédéric Pascal de Noailles (1873–1942), the fourth son of the 7th Duke de Noailles. The couple soon became the toast of Parisian high society. They had one child, a son, Count Anne-Jules de Noailles (1900–1979).

Anna de Noailles wrote three novels, an autobiography, and many collections of poetry. She had friendly relations with the intellectual, literary and artistic elite of the day including Marcel Proust, Francis Jammes, Colette, André Gide, Frédéric Mistral, Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac, Paul Valéry, Jean Cocteau, Pierre Loti, Paul Hervieu, and Max Jacob.

So popular was Anna de Noailles that various notable artists of the day painted her portrait, including Antonio de la Gandara, Kees van Dongen, Jacques Émile Blanche, and the British portrait painter Philip de Laszlo. In 1906 her image was sculpted by Auguste Rodin; the clay model can be seen today in the Musée Rodin in Paris, and the finished marble bust is on display in New York's Metropolitan Museum.

She died in 1933 in Paris, aged 56, and was interred in the Père Lachaise Cemetery. She was a cousin of Prince Antoine Bibesco, Princess Martha Bibescu and Elena Văcărescu.

Anna de Noailles was the first woman to become a Commander of the Legion of Honor, the first woman to be received in the Royal Belgian Academy of French Language and Literature, and she was honored with the "Grand Prix" of the Académie Française in 1921.