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an old photo of a couple of letters and a wax seala close up of a piece of paper with writing on ita collection of four handwritten letters from the late 19th century
ROUILLAC

88 - Haydée Magnus Level (1903–1991), woman of letters and hostes…
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Estimate €100 - €150
Sale commission
Description
Haydée Magnus Level (1903–1991), woman of letters and hostess, muse to Léon Daudet, Maurice Barrès and Charles Maurras Collection of correspondence 14 letters to the addressee and 2 photo postcards, 1926–1943, addressed to René Benjamin, including 18 September 1926 Sir, do you recall that lady who gave up her seat for you at the (Philippe Daudet case)? Well, it is she who cannot resist the pleasure of telling you how delighted she was to read the extract from your article in *L’Avenir* lambasting that ridiculous PPP. How amusing it is, and what style it has! Madame de Noailles, who relates everything to her sense of smell and taste, ought to find that this particular flavour is rich and spicy, like American-style lobster. You really ought to write one in the same vein to that flaccid wretch Briand. That nasty, sly and base man. As Madame Daudet is still in the countryside, I cannot ask her for your address, so I shall take the liberty of sending it to Mr Carvallo, whom I know to be one of your friends... 18 February 1930 Dear Sir and friend, You have forced us to examine our consciences. I am trying to look deep within myself and answer the question: ‘Why do you always go to René Benjamin’s lectures?’ Because I like the impact of his thinking. I find myself in agreement with him, and this agreement flatters my obsession with understanding him properly. Perhaps it is a touch of narcissism. Then again, I go to watch a highly difficult somersault and want to see how my favourite tightrope-walker gets on; I, too, love danger as much for myself as for others , without adopting the method of Nietzsche, that vulgar imitator of Stendhal. Finally, because you strike me as imposing a constraint on the chatterboxes, and constraints alone are what make life pleasant. In any gathering these days, nobody listens any more. Poor manners have got the better of everyone. If some thoughtless soul asks a question, just as you’re about to answer, she leans over to a neighbour to ask them another question, without feeling, herself, the dread that haunts kings and queens. So, this muzzled audience, forced to listen, to follow a speech that develops an idea, forced to keep quiet, forced to be polite, in spite of themselves! What a revenge, what a victory. If I were not preoccupied with the speaker’s face—from which one can glean so much, where a barely hinted-at laugh, quickly stifled, reveals such cruelty, such artful, conscious shrewdness, such self-control—I would love to look at the faces of your patients. Take last night, for instance: in the front row, right at your feet, sat a certain Count de Gontaut Biron, his head adorned with a warming cap, the face of a perfect, smug idiot, imbued with some sort of supposed superiority, hostile on principle, just as one might look down on one’s neighbour in a restaurant, out of snobbery or dandyism. He didn’t understand much of what you said; despite his two little monkey-like eyes that turned into daggers of malice, he only broke into a smile in the presence of my friends, without a trace of insincerity. I find that you talk at length, without ever saying anything about yourself; beneath your cold irony, there is a visible contempt, and, in the midst of it all, suddenly, an arrow full of honey is shot off, much to the delight of one or other of your touched female listeners. You possess a prodigious creative spirit and a remarkable sense of order; from time to time, one catches a glimpse of your teeth, which gives the impression of a flash of lightning across your face, and then there are your hands—yes, your hands, which hold great significance...
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About the sale René Benjamin, the 20th-century Balzac scholar
Auction location
Auction time 10/06/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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