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367 - Alphonse de LAMARTINE. Autograph letter, Saint-Point, 29 Aug…
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Estimate €500 - €700
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Description
Alphonse de LAMARTINE. Autograph letter, Saint-Point, 29 August 1829, to the Marquise de Montcalm; 4 pages, in-4. Following the appointment of the Polignac Ministry. ‘Like everyone else, I am dazed by the political upheaval that has just taken place, and I have been left speechless.’ This is likely to keep him in seclusion for some time yet: ‘There are two men within us: one who is content with whatever makes him happy, the other who would like more and who is ashamed to see the years slip by without having put his abilities to the test in something great and useful for his country. The first is the wiser, and it is also the one who predominates in me. The second, however, still raises his voice from time to time within my heart. It is he who longs for Paris or London.” The Marquise’s salon must be ‘thrown into disarray’ by the event, the impact of which will be dampened in the provinces where ‘the masses are decidedly passive and disinterested […] The moral world has become entirely material’… He intends to spend a week in Mâcon ‘with the departmental council and the local dignitaries’, then will remain on his estates, though tempted to come to Paris to speak with the Marquise: ‘But who can say whether I shall resist the temptation? I have a wife, a child and a mother-in-law whom I can neither take with me nor leave behind. I am ruined by two years of travelling. Perhaps I shall be wise enough to spend two years here putting my somewhat dilapidated affairs in order.” He does not know what will be decided regarding his diplomatic post: “My dream would be to accompany Mr de La Ferronnays—whom I hold in high esteem and love more than any other politician—to London, should he be appointed there.” He ‘needs a change of scenery, both mentally and physically […] It is an ailment of the soul and the body that makes us write poetry and transports us in our imagination, since we cannot do so in reality’…
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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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