MAUPASSANT (de), Guy (1850-1893)

MAUPASSANT (de), Guy (1850-1893)

Autograph letter signed « Guy » to his cousin by marriage Lucie Le Poittevin
[Antibes or Cannes, late 1886 or early 1887], 2 p. small in-8°, in black ink
Letterhead « GM – Yacht Bel-Ami »
Tiny tear on central fold

Nice unpublished letter from the writer enriched with an amusing signature

« Ma chère Lucie,
J’arriverai à Paris le 10 ou 12 janvier et je voudrais bien que M. Oudinot¹ eut fini ma serre² pour ce moment, car je ne resterai pas plus de 15 jours ou 3 semaines. S’il y a du danger pour la neige, voulez-vous avoir la complaisance de prier Le Mare de me faire pour tout de suite un treillage en fil de fer, solide, sur le second vitrage.
Vous allez recevoir dans quelques jours une grande caisse – port payé – contenant des objets pour vous et pour moi. Pour vous un grand cache pot en faïence avec son pied. Pour moi deux éléphants³ et quatre plaques de faïence.
Nous avons ici un temps superbe, le jardin plein de fleurs, de roses, d’anémones de narcisses ; et je préfère cela au grand froid et à la neige de Paris.
Je navigue beaucoup, je fais de l’escrime avec rage, je marche, je me livre donc à tous les exercices, sauf à…. l’affection. Mais je m’en passe.
À Bientôt, ma chère cousine, excusez moi si je vous écris si court, et si peu, mais vous savez que mes yeux ne me permettent guère ce genre de sport [one of the symptoms of his syphilis, diagnosed in 1877 and which would continue to poison him].
Je vous embrasse, à la barbe de Louis, dont je serre la main.
Votre Cousin
Guy dit Capitaine Tellier
Comᵗ le Bel-Ami
Bateau Poisson
Bᵗᵉ S.G.D.G⁴ »

[1] Camille Oudinot, playwright and novelist, was a close friend of Maupassant. The latter dedicated to him his short story Le Parapluie, published in 1884.

[2] It involves the construction of a greenhouse in La Neuville-Chant-d’Oisel. Jules de Maupassant, Guy’s paternal grandfather, a storekeeper at the tobacco, obtained a 130-hectare plot of land in the same town on which, as if to ensure symmetry with the Château du Chant d’Oisel, he had a residence erected in 1835. Several members of the Maupassant and Le Poittevin families are buried there.

[3] The “two elephants” in question were possibly meant to decorate the entrance above the pillars of his residence “La Guillette”, in Étretat.

[4] While the surnames that Maupassant attributed to himself allude to two of his most famous works, a contemporary letter to the Countess Potocka dated December 15, 1886, sheds light on the double meanings of his signature:
« The Bel-Ami [his boat] is a sea fish as its name suggests: and it dances, while embarking its owner, a real cancan of a barrier ball. He and I are at this moment in the port of Cannes, where a violent blow of the mistral [southern wind of the French Riviera] threw us the day before yesterday, and where we remain blocked. I hope to get back on track tomorrow morning, if the wind allows it. Since I have been in command of this symbolic boat, I have taken the name of Captain Tellier [an allusion to his short story La Maison Tellier] ».
As for the acronym “Bté SGDG” (Bréveté sans garantie du gouvernement), the same occurrence is found in Bel Ami (Romans, ed. Forestier, Pléiade, p. 368).

A cousin by marriage of Maupassant, Lucie Le Poittevin, born Ernoult, was the daughter of a rich banker from Rouen. She married the painter Louis Le Poittevin, son of one of Flaubert’s closest friends in Rouen. Maupassant’s first cousin and confidant, the latter dedicated his short story L’Âne, published in 1883, to him.