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363 - Alphonse de LAMARTINE. Autograph letter, Florence, 18 April …
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Estimate €500 - €600
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Description
Alphonse de LAMARTINE. Autograph letter, Florence, 18 April 1827, [to the Marquise de Montcalm]; 4 pages, in-8. He is pleased that she liked his gift (a bowl decorated with birds), rather than sending her – ‘and above all to the public – the verses, good or bad, that I write or might write or ought to write: the taste is not there. The wind is blowing elsewhere; the seed would fall on a rock. I can no longer foresee when or how I shall become a poet again. But I am happy in my non-poetic career—that is enough. You ask me why I love you? I have no idea: I do not care to know; a certain instinct of involuntary affection has always guided me better than the best reasons in the world for loving what I have loved a little, a lot, or too much. I now try to love as little as possible [four lines crossed out follow] Life is sad; I agree with you […] I am often gloomy […] ‘The English kill themselves in autumn, and I gnaw at myself in spring.’ As his minister Lamaisonfort has not returned, Lamartine will not be able to go to Paris; that will have to wait until 1828. For the summer he has taken ‘a pretty villa by the sea near Livorno. I am settling my wife and household there, and I myself will come and go. When I see the sea, I feel less oppressed. I would like to set sail for the East, but it seems the Baron of Damascus will not grant this poetic wish’…
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About the sale Letters and Autograph Manuscripts – Part II
Auction location
Auction time 10/14/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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