93 - SEGALEN (VICTOR)

SEGALEN (VICTOR) A very fine autograph letter signed “Victor Segalen,” Brest, October 2, 1908, 4 pp., in-8, to his friend Émile Magne, combining friendly exchanges and literary reflections. In it, Segalen discusses his reading and encourages his correspondent in his work, while offering a valuable glimpse into his own concerns at the time: absorbed in the study of the Chinese language, he expresses his growing attraction to the exotic and his search for new imagery. This correspondence, with its lively and spontaneous tone, sheds light on the emergence of his aesthetic and his literary and intellectual choices on the eve of his great journeys. “My dear friend, I am postponing for a month everything I might have to say to you about your current work, of which your last letter gives me a wonderful foretaste; and this is because, since I will certainly be spending the three winter months in Paris, I will have the leisure to converse peacefully with you. These past few days, while sifting through a few tons of old books—from which I can extract fine accounts of travels and a few authors whose works are worth more than the weight of the paper— I came across some fragments by Scarron, unfortunately too disjointed to expect that you will find them to your liking (Virgil in Burlesque Verse by Mr. Scarron, dedicated to the Queen, Lyon, MDC. LXXX, 1 vol., and: *Suite du Virgile travesti*, M.DCCLII). I am sending them to you anyway, just in case. At the same time, I was leafing through a rather good edition of Cyrano from the middle of the century, and, faced with the astonishing diversity of this wit—which has not yet been put in its proper place—I was surprised that, rather than a certain lady whose appearance possessed, in reality, only the charm you know how to make the most of, I was surprised that you did not consider resuming what you had begun—as a start, I believe, in your literary career—on the occasion of the Rostand fantasy. I do not believe that the current publication of the *Mercure* deprives you of this task, provided it is done with the careless haste that mars the said “collection.” / As for me, thoroughly absorbed by this childish Chinese language—which is even more complicated than its reputation suggests—I am setting my own writing aside for a while, even if it means returning to it later with greater enjoyment. I need imagery. I will certainly turn more and more to exotic subjects. But this interpreting exam, which is supposed to provide them to me, is sometimes very time-consuming. / My wife, who is in excellent health, will accompany me to Paris and is looking forward to seeing, fully rested, Madame Magne and young Georges, to whom I am only too happy to restore his true gender. Please convey my respectful regards and accept my warmest regards.”