BATAILLE Georges. - Lot 53

BATAILLE Georges. 3 AUTOGRAPH LETTERS SIGNED TO HER MOTHER. Saint-Brieuc January 26, February 11 and 12, 1916, 14 pages in-12 in ink. Correspondence addressed to his mother while he is doing his military service in Saint-Brieuc, where he will be hospitalized. He is 19 years old. ... My dearest mother, I just had my second typhoid shot yesterday, and I have to tell you right away that it had no effect on me, so to speak, just a little fever that lasted an hour and a vague delirium, but nothing. However, I must confess that the apprehension of the injection was less amusing and in any case prevented me from opening your kind letter with full joy. As for you, I hope you will be as untroubled as possible; you mustn't worry about the business you tell me about, and try as much as you can to distract yourself... it will be a comfort to me to know that you are well and at peace. I was also very pleased to hear about the good memories you left behind in Riom... Your son, who loves you more than ever, Georges. This 8-page letter from January 1916 is written on mourning paper, as Marcel Proust was wont to do from time to time, and also includes a visiting card from Proust, which is of great interest given Bataille's passion for Proust's work, and the influence of Proust on Bataille's writing at the time. Georges Bataille was 18 when his father Joseph Aristide died under the bombs, abandoned, syphilitic, blind and unable to walk. Bataille's only affection and love was for his mother Marie-Antoinette, who raised her children alone, Bataille's almost incestuous love for his adored mother. His posthumous novel Ma mère was published in 1966, and became one of Georges Bataille's most beautiful and scandalous texts. Extremely rare documents.