MAUPASSANT (de), Guy (1850-1893)

MAUPASSANT (de), Guy (1850-1893)

Three autograph letters signed « Guy de Maupassant » to Dr Despaigne
Paris, October, November and December 1891, 9 p. 1/2 in-8° and in-12°

Moving testimony of Maupassant, drawing with lucidity the terrible report of his health condition, a few days before his internment
These three unpublished letters are among the last written by the novelist

Introduction

We present here three unpublished letters from Maupassant to Dr. Despaigne. These are among the last known autographs of the writer, only a few weeks before his internment at Dr. Blanche’s clinic, from where he will no longer write. Major testimonies on his physical and mental distress, these letters, unknown until 2023, thus complete a missing link of the last weeks of Maupassant “free”.
Little is known about Dr. Gaston Despaigne (1860-1918). It was through Dr. Jacques-Joseph Grancher (1843-1907) that Maupassant was introduced to this young doctor in the spring of 1891. Dr Despaigne, who had published his thesis Études sur la paralysie facial périphérique in 1888, thus represented a new hope for Maupassant, who in the autumn of 1889 began to present the first disorders of general paralysis, an aggravating consequence of syphilis. Alas, the writer could not but note the accentuation of the terrible symptoms of the disease.
In the autumn of 1891, he was afflicted with increasingly frequent delusions and memory loss, so much so that he knew he was doomed. He drew up his will on 14 December.
On the night of January 1 to 2, 1892, he made a suicide attempt with a pistol, (his valet François Tassart had removed the bullets). He then grabs a paper cup and tries to open his throat.
All doctors agree, a new suicidal crisis can occur at any moment, Maupassant must be hospitalized.
A nurse takes care of him in his Cannes residence and puts a straitjacket on him. He was interned on January 7, 1892 in the clinic of Dr. Blanche. After an interminable ordeal, and suffering from a general paralysis, he died on July 6, 1893.

In order to preserve their unprecedented character, we will publish only a few fragments.

Letter 1

“My eyes look like those of a madman”

The writer evokes the syphilitic symptoms that ravage him

« Mon cher Docteur
Y-a-t-il un contrepoison à la morphine. J’ai passé une nuit folle sans pouvoir rester au lit, allant de place en place, comme après ma piqure de cocaïne. Mes yeux, on l’air de ceux d’un fou. Ma mémoire disparue [,] le regard si vague que j’écris les yeux fermés, et le gauche louchant.
Quant aux pilules elles m’ont piqué tout le ventre sans aucun résultat […] J’ai une migraine atroce, si violente que je ne puis rester couché […] Comment calmer l’agitation à laquelle je suis en proie. Je vous serre la main.
Maupassant »

The writer is in this month of October 1891 in his Parisian apartment at 24 rue Boccador. As his health worsened, he rarely went out. His visit, five days earlier, to Princess Mathilde (his only notable outing of the month), leaves a testimony for the least revealing. She wrote to her nephew Count Primoli: “God he is changed! It hurt me a lot. He stammers while talking, exaggerates the slightest things and thinks he is cured! ». Other testimonies from the end of October give credence to the fact that those around him find him profoundly changed, both physically and intellectually.
François Tassart, his servant, noted at the same time in his diary: “The eminent professor [Dr. Grancher] has just sent him Dr. D [espaigne], because he is in the grip of an invincible malaise. After a time of cordial conversation, the doctor withdraws and I continue my role as a nurse until 4 a.m.”
Having to reach Cannes, as he announced to his mother on October 19, Maupassant had to give it up.

Letter 2

“Crushed by trains, bitten by rabid dogs, chased by assassins”

Moving and pathetic letter in which Maupassant disagrees with his doctor’s recommendations
Like the narrator in The Horla, a constantly tortured self-destructive character, he delivers the most sordid details about his mental and physical state

« Mon cher Docteur
Vous me conseillez toujours le chloral et je vous ai toujours répondu que le chloral ne m’avait jamais fait dormir. Cet été sur le même conseil donné par [le docteur] Grancher j’en ai bu une fine dose infinitésimale dans un jaune d’œuf battu. À peine le médicament eu-t-il touché mon estomac que j’y sentis une brulure terrible. Je quittais mon lit et marchais toute la nuit dans ma chambre. Le lendemain saignement de l’intestin. Quant au sulfonal c’est l’opium des grands cauchemars. Il a failli me tuer à Florence. J’en prenais tous les jours pour dormir. Or je me réveillais trois heures après écrasé par des trains, mordu par des chiens enragés, poursuivi par des assassins. Il en résultat une constipation féroce, puis, une nuit dix écoulements de sang par l’anus avec des mucosités […] Les médecins de Florence me croyaient perdu […].
Quant aux lavages au sel dans les fosses nasales ils me mettent encore dans un état de folie et de malaise physique invraisemblable […] Je passe une existence atroce dans cette lutte où je suis vaincu […] Mon cerveau chantonne des bêtises jour et nuit, ma mémoire s’en va et je perds les yeux […]. Je n’ai plus de salive car tout mon corps est salé comme un poisson mort. Rien ne me purge, rien ne me rafraîchit, je ne peux rien manger ni rien rendre. Et je halète car mes poumons sont secs comme le reste.
C’est la plus grande folie que j’ai commise.
Il n’y a pas de remède.
Bien cordialement à vous, mon cher docteur.
Guy de Maupassant […] »

[Then Maupassant reopens his letter at “Midnight”, in order to give an inventory of the situation on the moment to his doctor]

« Minuit
Je rouvre ma lettre à minuit. La salivation est revenue depuis neuf heures du soir, épouvantable non de la salive mais des colles filant comme du macaroni et salées comme la mer. Quand je les fais couler d’un verre dans l’autre elles sont deux minutes à glisser. Si j’avalais je revomirais tout. C’est odieux d’être dans cet état […] et me voici dans une situation de détresse où je n’ai jamais été.
Les piqures de morphine que m’a ordonnées Dr Grancher me font dormir quelques heures, mais avec de telles crises rien n’a de pouvoir […] L’état où j’étais à Paris, vous l’avez vu. Il n’était rien auprès de celui d’ici […]
Maupassant »

The writer recalls here his flight to Italy, and more precisely his stay in Florence, during the week of September 26, 1889, about which he gives sordid details about him.
He contradicts the prescriptions of his doctor and those of those who preceded him, convinced that they are harmful to him. Were they really? Later in his letter, he castigates the washing of the nasal cavity with salt (a common and harmless remedy) which, according to him, is the cause of all his ailments. Maupassant seems to indulge in paranoia, convinced that no drug produces its effect. It is actually syphilis that runs its course, inexorably and this letter, pathetic, depicts the most terrible details.

Letter 3

“If I have to go to a nursing home I will go”

Maupassant’s last letter to Dr. Despaigne, one month before his suicide attempt and internment

« Mon cher Docteur
Les accidents du sel s’aggravent si épouvantablement […] Je ne peux ni manger sans souffrances terribles ni aller à la selle. Ma tête est dans un état d’inflammation qui touche à la folie.
Et dire que j’étais guéri en arrivant à Paris.
Bien cordialement
Guy de Maupassant
Parlez-en sérieusement à notre ami [Dr.] Grancher.
S’il faut aller dans une maison de santé j’irai […] »

In a final fit of lucidity, Maupassant seems here to resolve to his future internment. After his suicide attempt on the night of 1 to 2 January, the famous psychiatrist Émile Blanche deemed it necessary to bring him to Paris, then to intern him in his clinic in Passy, where Maupassant was hospitalized in room 15, which would become his only universe (and from which he would no longer write), until his death eighteen months later.
We only know of reported remarks concerning him during this long period of agony, like these lines of Goncourt in his diary, dated August 17, 1892: “Maupassant has the physiognomy of the true madman, with the haggard look and the mouth without spring”, then of January 30, 1893 “Maupassant is in the process of animalization”.

Thus ended Maupassant who had prophesied:
« I entered the literary life like a meteor and I will come out like a love at first sight. »
This letter is in addition to Maupassant’s rare writings of December 1891, the last known of him.