24 autograph letters signed, in total 51 pages (including 2 postcards), various formats, 1934-1949, in French, to Dr. Louis Geslin - concerning the translation of Shakespeare and the Journal, mostly written and signed in dark ink, with mild browning, a few letters with intersecting mailing folds, a few with mild creasing, and partly with very small tears to the edges - overall in fine condition. Accompanied by original envelopes, an important file containing Geslin's copy of his correspondence with Gide, with his own often very long letters; a large set of notes by Geslin on Shakespeare and on Gide's Journal; an autograph letter signed from the publisher Jacques Schiffrin, founder of "la Pléiade," to Geslin (1938); and a set of proofs of Antony and Cleopatra for the Pléiade, corrected and commented by Geslin.
Living in Marseille, Dr. Louis Geslin (1900-1957), a doctor at the Messageries maritimes, wrote to Gide in November 1934 to give him some remarks on his translation of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra (1921, 2nd edition in 1925); he himself undertook to translate Shakespeare in his spare time.
A correspondence was thus established between them, and Gide called on the doctor when he revised his translation of Antony and Cleopatra for the Complete Theatre of Shakespeare in the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade in 1938; the doctor sent long letters (the minutes are attached) to Gide, also concerning the translation of Hamlet, and Gide's Diary, to which he also sent his own literary compositions. Gide's letters are written from Paris, Cuverville, Dalaba (Guinea), La Boissière (Calvados), the Château de Chitré, Luxor, Nice, Cap d'Ail, Grasse, Algiers, Constantine, Cairo and Juan-les-Pins; we can only give an overview.
The correspondence (Text passages translated into English) opens with a polite reply to remarks about his translation of Antony and Cleopatra; Gide defends himself on a few points, and mentions his translation of Hamlet, interrupted in the first act: "This act alone gave me more trouble than the five acts of Antony and Cleopatra; but I dare say I am more satisfied with it" (December 12, 1934)... Regarding his translation of the first act of Hamlet (1930), he did not accept all the doctor's remarks, but had misplaced the letter he had prepared (18 March 1935). Returning to Dr Geslin in 1938, he asked to entrust him with the proofs of the Shakespeare by Pléiade, which would reproduce the translation of François-Victor Hugo, except for a few plays translated by Maeterlinck, Pourtalès, Supervielle, etc., and his Antoine, for which he deplored having misplaced the doctor's notes... He obtained an extension of time to take into account his critical remarks... He would have liked to discuss with him some passages that he maintained: "Already the few lines: 'This common body... To rot itself with motion" had given me a lot of trouble (I did not know the very interesting commentary by Katherine Mansfield that you quote). I have studied it again, turned it upside down, if I may say so. Infernal text" (July 21, 1938)... He begged Geslin not to give in to the vertigo of the "torment of the asymptote", for the line of the translation will never perfectly meet that of the text, and he replied at length to his last objections. "Shakespeare himself, like all true poets, is less concerned with the exact meaning of words than with their sound and evocative power" (28 July 1938)... He reiterates his gratitude for the happy alterations made thanks to Geslin, and discusses some difficult words and passages, while criticizing an extract from François-Victor Hugo, where only the meaning remains of Shakespeare: "Something shapeless, without any more impetus, rhythm or life" (August 18, 1938)... Gide was unable to take into account Geslin's suggestions for corrections to his Diary, which arrived too late in 1940; the following year, however, he explained that a diary was not a work: "it is a trace, and one cannot, without cheating, return to it. There is nothing more instructive than this perpetual effort to amend certain poets," such as Baudelaire or Ronsard... And he compares the doctor's remarks to those of Voltaire on Corneille, which are often accurate, but lend themselves to a smile (Grasse, September 5, 1941)... He insists on the authenticity of the Journal... The advice of Geslin would have been useful to him for the translation of Hamlet: he consults him on a particular line, which he believes to have rendered better than his predecessors... Gide expresses reservations about the jokes and reflections he finds in Geslin's manuscripts, especially concerning Toulet, Vauvenargues and Joubert, who do not deserve so much attention... He submits to him his translation of famous verses of Hamlet, and regrets not having a copy of this first edition published in America, "which is not available in Europe" (July 20, 1945)... Etc.
