BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 25 MAY 1921
BRACERS 19734. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<Beijing>
May 25, 19211

My Darling

4 letters from you written in Feb. (mostly from Paris)2 reached me yesterday. The reason of the delay is that there is a strike at the University because the Government doesn’t pay the teachers’ salaries — so there is no one there to attend to letters. I was very glad of your letters — one of them told about the part you are touring in,3 which I had wondered about — and one enclosed a notice of a play,4 which I thought admirable. Thank you and C.A.5 very much for your cable6 wishing me happy returns. I am still in bed, and likely to be for another fortnight at least — my leg takes longer to get well than it should, but now there is a definite improvement — I am very tired of bed, and of not being able to work — I haven’t yet the strength for work, and I suppose I shan’t have till I get up. We had a passage sailing July 2, but have had to cancel it, as very likely I shan’t be fit to travel so soon — It is vexing. Probably we shall sail the end of July7—

I read both the Russian books you sent,8 and I will give you back Clare Sheridan9 when I give you your Chinese cloak. I liked her book better than I had expected — it is very readable. She is a cat and a cad, but improves towards the end. I read Upton Sinclair’s Brass Check10 — very interesting — and a really admirable Spanish novel, Caesar or Nothing by Baroja.11 Do read it — it is pessimistic enough to suit you.

I am back in my house, and lie all day looking out onto a courtyard full of flowers. The weather is delicious — warm with occasional showers. The dryness of the winter nearly drove me mad — it only rained once, and snowed slightly 3 times, from my arrival in Peking to the time when I got ill.

Goodbye for the present, my dear one. Don’t be too unhappy or pessimistic12 — bad things are transitory as well as good ones. All my heart, Beloved —

B

• 1

  [document] Document 200739.

• 2

  written in Feb. (mostly from Paris) There are only three extant letters written by Colette that month: 1 and 8 February from London (BRACERS 116439 and 116440) and 24 and 25 February (116441 from Paris).

• 3

  the part you are touring in All that Colette disclosed about this part was that it was “a brute to cope with.” Rehearsals would begin on 14 March and the tour would take her to Scotland and some big towns (25 Feb, 1921; BRACERS 116441).

• 4

  a notice of a play For H.G. Wells and St. John Ervine’s new fantasy The Wonderful Visit; enclosed with her 24–25 Feb. letter (BRACERS 116441). Colette was filling in on a temporary basis as a drama critic for an unknown publication (26 Jan., BRACERS 116438). The review in The Times of this play appeared on 11 February 1921.

• 5

  C.A. (Reginald) Clifford Allen (1889–1939). For information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n. 7.

• 6

  for your cable The telegram (BRACERS 107503) which is stamped the day of BR’s birthday wishes him “many happy returns”.  It had been sent to Shanghai, which is where BR had told Colette he would be before he fell ill.

• 7

  sail the end of July They sailed from Yokohama on 30 July.

• 8

  the Russian books you sent In addition to the book by Sheridan, which was sent as a birthday gift in March, Colette  also promised on 3 April 1921 (BRACERS 116449) to send Arthur Ransome’s The Crisis in Russia (1921); it is in Russell’s Library (RL no. 2066).

• 9

  Clare Sheridan Colette had sent Russian Portraits (London: J. Cape, 1921) as a birthday gift; it is unsurprisingly not in Russell’s Library.

• 10

  Upton Sinclair’s Brass Check Published by the author in 1920; it is in BR’s “Ex-Library” (3722).

• 11

  Spanish novel, Caesar or Nothing by Baroja Originally published as César o nada by Pío Barjoa.

• 12

  Don’t be too unhappy or pessimistic Colette had written in her letter of 8 Feb. 1921 (BRACERS 116440): “I’m remembering how I used to think, long ago, that under no circumstances would I ever commit suicide. I know better now.”