Paul Claudel in the Ida Rubenstein archival fonds of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Those archives provide access to all the letters Claudel sent to Ida Rubinstein, as well as to some precious documents. We are thus able to trace Claudel’s relationship with the admired performer and patron. At first enthusiastic, and somewhat frightened, by the various possibilities of working towards a complete work of art, the playwright was then disappointed. Joan of Arc at the stake remains, with Honegger’s score, an exemplary achievement.