About this Exhibition

Private Proust: Letters and Drawings to Reynaldo Hahn was produced by François Proulx, Lecturer on Comparative Literature at Harvard University and guest curator at Houghton Library. This online exhibition was originally a component of the Proust and the Arts web site, which served as a resource both for students enrolled in "French 165: Marcel Proust" and for guests and attendees of the interdisciplinary conference held at Harvard University April 19-20, 2013.

1. Pleasures and Days (1894-1896)

In this New Year’s card to Lemaire’s daughter Suzanne, Hahn writes, “Marcel is still asleep, so I take the pen […].” He goes on to reflect on how the passage of time changes even familiar landscapes, a recurring theme in Proust’s novel.
Reynaldo Hahn, Letter to Suzanne Lemaire, [1 Jan 1896]. b MS Fr 219.1 (20), Houghton Library, Harvard University. Purchase, Amy Lowell Fund, 1963.