[Ads-l] Quote Origin: A bore is a man who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Wonderful thematic match, Peter! Here is the pertinent passage from
Proust's novel in French. I performed a quick search and did not see
an earlier match. Perhaps the phrasing was different.

Date: 1923
Series: A la recherche du temps perdu
Book Title: La Prisonnière (Sodome et Gomorrhe III)
Author: Marcel Proust
Tome VI
Chapitre Premier
Quote Page 19 and 20
Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française (nrf), Paris

https://books.google.com/books?id=ef5rwdTOl4oC&q=%22ta+pauvre%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
Parmi les causes qui faisaient que maman m'envoyait  tous les jours
une lettre, et une lettre d'où  n'était jamais absente quelque
citation de Mme de Sévigné, il y avait le souvenir de ma grand'mère.
Maman m'écrivait: « Mme Sazerat nous a donné un de ces petits
déjeuners dont elle a le secret et qui, comme eût dit ta pauvre
grand'mère, en citant Mme de Sévigné, nous enlèvent à la solitude sans
nous apporter la société. »
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sun, Aug 3, 2025 at 10:30 PM mr_peter_morris at outlook.com
<mr_peter_morris at outlook.com> wrote:
>
> https://alarecherchedutempsperdu.org/proust-english-5.html
>
> "Among the reasons which led Mamma to write me a daily letter, and a
> etter which never failed to include some quotation from Mme. de Sévigné,
>   there was the memory of my grandmother. Mamma would write to me:
> “Mme. Sazerat gave us one of those little luncheons of which she
> possesses
>   the secret and which, as your poor grandmother would have said, quoting
> Mme. de Sévigné, deprive us of solitude without affording us company.”
>
> Marcel Proust
> The Captive, 1927.
>
>
> I don't know if the attribution to Mme. de Sévigné is correct, I can't
> find
> anything similar while searching a collection of her letters.
>
> https://archive.org/details/selectionsfromra00raberich/page/42/mode/2up?q=deprive+solitude
>
>
> Here's another attribution to her, again without specifying  the source.
>
> https://www.boundary2.org/2020/04/dominic-pettman-netflix-and-chills-on-digital-distraction-during-the-global-quarantine/
>
> "As the 17th-century socialite, Madame de Sévigné, wrote, “How tedious
> those gatherings that deprive us of solitude without affording us
> company.”
>
>

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