Exhibition "Marcel Proust, prix Goncourt 1919" at the Galerie Gallimard (Paris VIIe)

THE CENTENARY EXHIBITION Drouant, 10 December 1919:

Marcel Proust receives the 17th prix Goncourt for À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs, the second volume of À la recherche du temps perdu. This decision marked a turning point: a new literary era began with the recognition of a novel without equal, in which our relationship to time, reality, subjectivity and loved ones is played out.

The days that followed were marked by a wave of protest in the French press. Witnessing this "little paper uprising", Jacques Rivière, a friend of the writer and director of La NRF, was prompted to remark: « Seuls les chefs d’œuvre ont le privilège de se concilier du premier coup un chœur aussi consonant d’ennemis. Les sots jamais ne se mettent en révolution sans qu’il leur ait été fait quelque positive et vraiment cruelle injure. » ("Only masterpieces have the privilege of uniting, at a single stroke, so harmonious a chorus of enemies. Fools never rise up in revolt unless some real and truly cruel injury has been done to them.")

The Galerie Gallimard looks back at the history of this prize, drawing on the archives of Éditions Gallimard, the Maison de Tante-Léonie (Illiers-Combray), the prix Goncourt (Nancy), the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques-Doucet, presenting around sixty exceptional documents, some of which were exhibited as part of the Printemps proustien at the Maison de Tante-Léonie in Illiers-Combray: letters, printer's proofs, original manuscripts and "placards", drawings and photographs.

Of particular note is Marcel Proust's personal notebook Moi prix Goncourt (c. 1920-1921) and, exhibited for the first time, two drawings by Paul Morand lent by the Bibliothèque nationale de France: Marcel Proust au Ritz (c. 1917) and Marcel Proust sur son lit de mort (November 1922).

« Vous ne connaissez rien au testament des Frères Goncourt. Moi, je le connais. La clause ne précise pas qu’ils ont laissé le prix à un jeune homme. Non, il s’agit d’un jeune talent. Ce qui est exactement le cas de M. Proust ; car, je vous le dis, c’est un écrivain qui devance son époque de plus de cent ans. » ("You know nothing of the Goncourt brothers' will. I know it well. The clause does not specify that they left the prize to a young man. No, it is a matter of young talent. Which is exactly the case with M. Proust; for, I tell you, he is a writer who is more than a hundred years ahead of his time.") Léon Daudet at Drouant, 10 December 1919

The Galerie Gallimard is also exhibiting an original piece of furniture (Saint-Loup, a step-stool chair, 2018) created by the designer Anthony Guerrée as part of the project « Les assises du temps perdu » (Collection particulière edition).

Click on this link to view the press release.