rich and exuberant body of correspondence; Myers sees the "letter-writer's gift of spontaneous self-expression, with no undertones of insincerity or of writing for effect". He expressed himself in "Rabelaisian language" and "laced with a profusion of racy slang". In 1994 the musical scholar Roger Delage, with Frans Durif and Thierry Bodin, produced a 1,300 page edition of the composer's correspondence, containing 1,149 letters, ranging from those to his family and Nanine, exchanges with contemporary friends in the musical world (sometimes with musical quotations), negotiations with publishers, and one a commiseration with his son André on the death of his pet bird (with gentle reproach for having over-fed the creature). Decline and final years In his final years, Chabrier was troubled by financial problems caused by the collapse of his bankers, failing health brought on by the terminal stage of syphilis, and depression about the neglect of his stage works in France. The death of his beloved "Nanine" in January 1891 greatly affected him. In 1892, he wrote to his friend Charles Lecocq, "Never has an artist more loved, more tried to honour music than me, none has suffered more from it; and I will go on suffering from it for ever". He became obsessed with the composition of his final opera Briséïs, which was inspired by a tragedy of Goethe and has melodic echoes of Wagner; he completed only one act. The Paris première of Gwendoline, finally took place in December 1893. The composer, ailing physically and mentally, sitting in a stage box with his family, enjoyed the music but did not realise he had written it, nor did he understand that the applause was for him. Chabrier succumbed to general paresis in the last year of his life and died in Paris at the age of 53. Although he had asked to be buried near the tomb of Manet in the Cimetière de Passy, a plot was not available and he was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse. His widow and children also suffered from probable infection: she had severe eye problems, becoming almost blind, and, after Chabrier's death, became paraplegic, dying aged 51; the eldest son, Marcel, died at 35 having also displayed related symptoms, and the second son, Charles, died after only five weeks, the youngest, André, also became paraplegic and died also aged 35. Works Vincent d'Indy called Chabrier "that great primitive ... a very great