Many days have elapsed, my dear friend, since our childhood, but they
have passed away without effecting any alteration in the affectionate
feelings we then entertained. In memory of an intimacy of heart and mind
which has never known a cloud, it is very pleasant to me to write your
name at the beginning of that one of my books which you preferred to all
the rest. It is further the book in which I have stated with most
sincerity what I think concerning some of the essential problems of the
modern life of our day.

Paul Charles Joseph Bourget (French: [buʁʒɛ]; 2 September 1852 – 25 December 1935) was a French novelist and critic He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times.