The personal archives of the French writer Marcel Proust sold at auction at Sotheby’s in Paris on 31 May for a total of €1.24m with premium (against an estimate of €520,000 to €740,000), demonstrating the appeal of nostalgia—but this would probably not be a surprise to the author of the seven-volume series In Search of Lost Time (1913-27). The 120 objects, left to Proust’s brother Robert after he died in 1922, were put up for sale by his great-grandniece, Patricia Mante-Proust. In addition to literary memorabilia—like the letter the Académie Goncourt sent to the writer in December 1919 telling him he had won the prestigious literary award, the Prix Goncourt (€13,750 with premium, est. €6,000-€8,000)—are very intimate items, like a mid-breakup letter to his lover Reynaldo Hahn from 1896 (est €20,000-€25,000, sold for €45,000 with premium) and a photograph his parents wanted the world to forget: they demanded he recuperate all prints of an 1896 image of Proust, his visibly besotted lover Lucien Daudet and a friend, which sold for €18,750 with premium (est. €5,000-€8,000). That’s the way the madeleine crumbles.
