Can three centuries of glorious literary correspondence be brought to an end by post office bureaucrats, a computer screen and a hair-raising proposal to read and scan all the urgent billets- doux winging their way to the intended beloved?
La Poste, the French postal service, is proposing to abolish its first-class mail service, which it says is no longer profitable and is bad for the environment, and offer instead an email service.
Those wanting to contact their lawyers or their lovers urgently can instead write a letter on La Poste’s website and then have it printed out, put in an envelope and delivered at a cost of more than a current first-class stamp. Not surprisingly, the proposal has run into some very Gallic fury.
It is not simply the idea that those who already have a computer would prefer to entrust their missive to a prurient intermediary rather than send their own email to the recipient; it is total lack of confidentiality, the further discouragement, especially among the young, of the gentle art of fine words embellished by elegant calligraphy; and the absurdity of paying more to get less.
Belles lettres in France often means just that: wonderful epistolary prose that was sent by one writer to another and probably intended to be cherished, saved and eventually published for general admiration.
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Madame de Sévigné was one celebrated letter-writer. Voltaire was another. Britain has its imitators, among them Lord Chesterfield’s advice to his son. But few have matched the French for literary style and aplomb.
La Poste’s proposal is dangerous because it is contagious. What a great idea, bean-counters at Royal Mail will be saying, to reduce our losses by making all mail email. Romantics and optimists take heart: true love is never a hostage to time. Fine sentiments can still be sent in fine writing. Even going third class, they will be worth the wait.
