Marcel Proust, An Interpretation of his Life

Marcel Proust has become almost a legend. His novel has made such a profound impression on this generation that in the few short years since his death he has been judged worthy of the mantle worn in turn by the great French commentators on social mores, from Rabelais and Montaigne down through La Bruyere and La Rochefoucauld to Balzac and France. A mass of critical data has accumulated on his writings, mainly intemperately eulogistic, and hand in hand with this has gone the publication of facts and anecdotes on his life. The most definitive of these and the one from which the present writer has drawn most of his information is “Marcel Proust, Sa Vie, Son Oevre,” by Leon Pierre-Quint.

On reading his life, the striking thing is not his great novel, but the fact that he ever wrote anything of value. Till the age of forty he had done nothing to even hint at his ability. In fact, when it was noised about that “Cher Marcel” was busy with a novel, it was greeted with the same derision which would be bestowed on a hairdresser turning sculptor. When the completed first volume was sent to the publishers it was universally rejected on the ground that such a frivolous exquisite could not possibly be capable of anything more important than female fashion notes. Yet the fait accompli tells a different story. Here is a problem. This article does not pretend to explain the man entirely, but merely to trace one or two threads which follow the main design in the complex fabric of his life.

He was born into an upper middle class family. His father was a physician and public hygienist of some eminence. His mother was an intelligent and sensitive Jewess. From childhood he was forbidden the more robust joys of life because of a severe form of asthma. His childhood was not remarkable except for the fact that his ailment kept him under his mother's too tender care. He received the usual formal education, characterized only by his inability to choose a career. That he was not distinguished in