Proust and Hahn met in the Parisian salon of Madeleine Lemaire, a painter and society hostess who welcomed them to her country estate in the summer of 1894 and to her villa in Brittany in 1895. Lemaire contributed drawings to the luxurious edition of Pleasures and Days, which also included musical scores by Hahn.

Although generally well received by critics, Proust’s first book was a commercial failure, the bulk of its first printing remaining unsold long after 1896. A satirical review ridiculed its high price, about four times the standard amount for a book: “A preface by [Anatole] France, four francs… Drawings by Madame Lemaire, four francs… Music by Reynaldo Hahn, four francs… Stories by [Proust], once franc… A few poems by [Proust], fifty cents… Total thirteen francs and fifty cents, was that perhaps too much?” 

Browse a complete first edition of the book here.

Marcel Proust, Les plaisirs et les jours. Illustrations de Madeleine Lemaire, préface d’Anatole France et quatre pièces pour piano de Reynaldo Hahn. Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1896. f*FC9.P9478.896p, Houghton Library, Harvard University. Purchase, Amy Lowell Fund, 1965.