GARY (Romain). "Don't forget that marquises don't have much - Lot 74

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  3. GARY (Romain). "Don't forget that marquises don't have much - Lot 74
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Lot n° 74
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GARY (Romain). "Don't forget that marquises don't have much - Lot 74
GARY (Romain). "Don't forget that marquises don't have much taste for happiness: pleasure is enough for them..." Autograph manuscript signed "Romain Gary", from his text Plaidoyer pour une marquise. [1968]. 8pp.1/2 large folio and 9pp.1/2 large folio, some erasures and corrections; marginal file holes. On Jacky Kennedy's remarriage to Aristotle Onassis in October 1968. More than a genuine plea for the American president's widow, Romain Gary offers an ironic response to the critical voices raised against this marriage, speaking of disrespect, betrayal and vulgarity. He also paints an accurate portrait of the former First Lady of the United States, "so little made for History and its imaginary Museums", far from the "epinal images" fabricated "by public opinion with the collaboration of the mass media". He is both admiring and acid about John F. Kennedy, and declares a favorable a priori about Aristotle Onassis: "I consider the word 'parvenu' dishonorable for the person who uses it. No one has the right to claim such superiority". "...So what do you do when you're an amiable marquise who loves the sun, the sea and travel, who craves insouciance and who, above all, has had enough of Greek tragedy? You're marrying a Greek without tragedy. Take the grandeur, the history, the myth, the blood, the seriousness, and look for the exact opposite: you're likely to find Aristotle Onassis. Don't forget that marquises don't have much taste for happiness: pleasure is enough for them. You've lived in the shadow of a powerful man: you choose a man who is also very powerful, but who will live in your shadow. You've never been a pampered wife: your illustrious husband had other things to do. So this time you marry a man who will throw all his immense fortune at your feet, for whom you are the triumphant, unhoped-for, crazy crowning glory of a life of "parvenu". He's going to make our Marquise a real queen... You're doing what used to be called "unefin". Of course, I would have preferred Jacqueline Kennedy to marry, as we used to say in May, a "German Jew" [allusion to May 1968 and Daniel Cohn-Bendit]. But, failing that, I'm content to see her marry a "parvenu" and a "levantine". I like a good story too..."
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