BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [25 AUG. 1920]
BRACERS 19696. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

6 Rue Boissonade
Paris XIV.1^, 2
Wed.3

My Darling Love

I got your letter yesterday4 — I was very glad of it — I have never been to the Convent des Carmes5 but I will go the first moment I can — Just now I am working madly to finish a book on Bolshevism6 before I go — owning to the delay I can make a real book, not a mere pot-boiler. In fact I am rather pleased with it, tho’ it is terribly sober — I find I hate the Bolsheviks getting defeated,7 in spite of not having liked them. — This place looks out on a lovely convent garden, which looks very autumnal in the mornings, with fresh dew on the grass — I sympathize with your wanting the autumn — as for me, I had four springs this year, but shall have no autumn. — Dear Heart, it is very good, all you write about the Luxembourg8 —

Yes, get the letters of Jane Welsh Carlyle — very interesting — also Froude’s Life of Carlyle9 —

It would be vexing to be held up if it were not for the chance it gives me of a finishing a book on Russia10 — The boat11 doesn’t go till Sep. 6, but probably I shall leave Paris on Sp. 1st and go to Avignon and Arles.12 You can write to the boat when it is too late to write here.

Dear Love, I keep remembering golden days with you, and evenings full of deep wonder — We have touched together the heights and depths — nothing can take away from us the deep union born of those times — Goodbye my loved one — Bless you, now and always —

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200697.

• 2

  [envelope] Miss Colette O’Niel | 6 Mecklenburgh Square | London W.C.1 | Angleterre. The London address was lined out and replaced with: c/o “Milestones” Co. | West Pier Theatre | Brighton. Pmk: OBSERVATO | 20* | 25 8 | 20

• 3

  [date] The date is taken from the envelope’s postmark combined with “Wednesday”, which fell on the 25th.

• 4

  your letter yesterday Her letter of 20 August (BRACERS 116409).

• 5

  Convent des Carmes Colette had suggested a visit to the garden at Carmes in her letter of 20 August 1920 (BRACERS 116409).

• 6

  book on BolshevismThe Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (B&R A34), published on 9 November 1920.

• 7

  the Bolsheviks getting defeated See BRACERS 19695, n.6.

• 8

  about the Luxembourg Colette had written about the Beethoven bust at the right door in the long gallery in the Luxembourg: “stormy, fierce, triumphant; making one understand why Hecuba, in the ruins of burnt-out Troy, could still lift her arms to heaven. But of course you won’t be seeing any of those things; only the diminutive French children, with sallow faces above sailor suits, among the flower beds near Verlaine’s statue” (20 Aug. 1920; BRACERS 116401).

• 9

  letters of ... life of CarlyleThe Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1883) were edited by James Anthony Froude (1818–1984), a close friend of Thomas Carlyle. Froude’s biography of Carlyle was published in four volumes: the first two volumes, Thomas Carlyle: A History of the First Forty Years of His Life (London: Longmans, Green 1882), and the latter two, A History of His Life in London (London: Longmans, Green, 1885).

• 10

  book on RussiaThe Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (B&R A34), published on 9 November 1920.

• 11

  boat The S.S. Porthos, sailing from Marseilles to China.

• 12

  Avignon and Arles BR’s godfather John Stuart Mill’s house was at Avignon. The special interest of BR in Arles is unknown.