BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [5 SEPT. 1920]
BRACERS 19698. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

In train to Marseilles1
Sunday2

Beloved

At last we are off — the boat goes tomorrow — The book3 got finished last night at two in the morning — It is not a bad book I think.

I got yesterday from you a wonderful letter (written Sep. 2).4  All you say is so generous and big — I know it is good for me now to have instinctive happiness though I don’t think it would have been sooner. I don’t trouble about the future between you and me because I feel sure it will be all right. Dora5 was only jealous while I gave her very little — Now she isn’ta —she is adventurous and not monogamic by nature —

Darling I have read those three French sonnets6 over and over again — they are most beautiful — I want to know how you came across them —

I count on hearing from you at the ports. Bless you, my Heart’s Comrade7 — I love you, now and always

B

• 1

  [document] Document 200699.

• 2

  [date] The date is assumed from “Sunday” combined with travelling to Marseilles.

• 3

  the bookThe Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (1920, B&R A34).

• 4

  wonderful letter (written Sep. 2) Colette’s letter reassured BR that he was “not to worry about the future or anything to do with” her. He was to take happiness where he could find it. Besides, she added, “our love—yours and mine—isn’t dependent on happiness. It simply exists” (BRACERS 116414).

• 5

  Dora Dora Russell, née Black (1894–1986). She and BR were married from 1921 until 1935. For further information on her, see BRACERS 19506, n.3.

• 6

  those three French sonnets By Louise Labé (1526?–1566). There are 24 sonnets in all; some of them appear to concern her painful parting from her lover and fellow poet Olivier de Magny. In a later letter Colette notes that the three sonnets she sent him “are thought to be her best” (10 Nov. 1920, BRACERS 116424). See also BRACERS 19697, n.4.

• 7

  Heart’s Comrade For information on the use of the term, see BRACERS 19145, n.12.

Textual Notes

• a

  she isn’t A prior word is illegible because of a number stamped on the verso of the letter.