" At my age we reread "

Abstract

To speak of " Proust essayiste " implies, as we have seen, exploring Proust's complex relationship with knowledge, tracing the difficult path he seeks between the position of the philologist, whom he distances, and that of the journalist, whom he also disapproves of. In this, the writer illustrates the ambiguous status of the essayist, considered "a kind of fumist" by scholars, " while he generally passes for a kind of bastard in the eyes of creators ", to use Musil's analysis.

How did Proust acquire the knowledge and culture he uses in La Recherche ? A letter from the writer to Madame de Brantes, de Montesquiou's aunt, dated September 1897, is illuminating on this point. In this letter, Proust quotes the word " À mon âge on relit ", which is not by Cuvillier-Fleury, as his correspondent believes, " but by another of those hyphenated names ", namely Royer-Collard. The remark on the hyphen, that " particle of the democracies ", as Proust puts it (borrowing the expression from Léon Blum), highlights his attention to the sociology of proper names. This sensitivity to contemporary onomastics is reflected in La Recherche, where the narrator singles out Madame Verdurin's ridiculous difficulty in correctly placing the particle in aristocratic surnames. Doctrinaire, Jansenist, excellent parliamentary orator during the Restoration and then the July Monarchy, Royer-Collard was an important reference for Proust and Sainte-Beuve alike, who praised his " irresistible verve, very epigrammatic and sarcastic ". This art of " l'insolence " is perfectly illustrated by the line, quoted by Proust, in response to Vigny, when the poet, who is endeavoring to obtain his support for his candidacy for the Académie, is surprised that he has not read his works. Vigny, who recounts the anecdote in Journal d'un poète, was not the first to fall victim to this scathing formula : the academician had already used it when Victor Hugo had come to ask for his vote, in 1841. This famous episode is recounted by Ximenès Doudan in a letter to his friend Cuvillier-Fleury, who was to be the posthumous editor of his correspondence.

Doudan was an important figure in literary, social and political circles from the 1870s to 1910, posthumously. He was tutor to Madame de Staël's youngest son and then to the children of the Duc de Broglie, a position that enabled him to break into French aristocratic circles and to become Albert de Broglie's chef de cabinet, in the ministries occupied by the latter between 1830 and 1836. Sainte-Beuve often referred to Doudan, whom he always described as " spiritual ". In his eyes, he was one of those " esprits délicats nés sublimes ", who also included Tréville and Joubert, described by Jules Lemaitre as " le Doudan alangui de deux ou trois petits salons aristocratiques qui se formentèrent à Paris au début de l'Empire ". Like Doudan, Joubert did not publish during his lifetime, and it was only thanks to his friend Chateaubriand that his Pensées appeared posthumously. These superior men, who left no work of their own because they lacked the strength and patience to execute it, are all figures of procrastination, characteristic of the " célibataires de l'art " in whom Proust takes a keen interest. Doudan is mentioned in the Recherche by Madame de Villeparisis, who contrasts the finesse, tact and " wit of a Doudan, a M. de Rémusat, not to say a Beausergent, a Joubert, a Sévigné ", with the lack of savoir-vivre of writers who don't know how to behave in society.