BERLIOZ (Hector). - Lot 243

BERLIOZ (Hector). Autograph letter signed to his sister Nanci. Paris. October 18 [1833]. 4 p. in-12. Minimal paper tears due to acidity of the ink. Violent plea, partly unpublished, for Harriet Smithson, whom Berlioz had just married on October 3, 1833, unaware of her family's reticence and the rumors circulating in Paris about the Irish actress. Did I commit a crime that would alienate me from my family, by marrying a woman I had loved so passionately for so long? a woman who had been a dream of happiness for me, but whom my imagination had portrayed as chimerical? a woman who had been horribly slandered and misunderstood, and whom I was at last seeing in her true light? a woman whom misfortune seemed to pursue relentlessly this year, and whom I was able to revive and restore to hope by dint of love and devotion, for want of other resources [....] But I must tell you and swear to you on my honor that the woman I have chosen as my life's companion is as pure in every respect as you could wish for your brother..."... at times I have been made mad, at times epileptic, at times a gambler, at times lost in debauchery: these infamies have not been without making some impression on a head as easily upset as hers... we have linked our two stormy destinies, and I hope she will not repent this any more than I have... Correspondance générale, ed. by P. Citron, t. Il, letter no. 355 (partial text). A cut-out word forming a hole.