Abstract
Experts agree that Proust's novel grew out of an essay, " Conversation avec maman sur Sainte-Beuve", which can be found in the notes and narrative fragments of Cahier 1 as early as 1908 and 1909. However, in a letter to Georges de Lauris in January 1909, Proust wrote : " I haven't started Sainte-Beuve yet [...] it won't be bad, and I'd like you to read it. " Proust's borrowing of the many volumes of Sainte-Beuve's Port-Royal from his friend testifies to his hard work. In March 1909, Proust sketched out the story of the awakening, a prologue to the critical conversation. In May 1909, he wrote to Georges de Lauris that he would not " fai[t] un roman ", that " c'est trop long à [lui] expliquer ", making no secret of his doubts. Reading this correspondence shows Proust's feelings oscillating between contentment and discouragement, his writing choices vacillating between criticism and the novel. In mid-July 1909, he sent Reynaldo Hahn his famous dictum : " I fear that my novel about the old Sainte-Beuve / Will not, between us, be much appreciated at Beuve's. " Proust also mentions publishing houses, but the obscenity of the work suggests difficulties. On August 15 1909, Proust wrote to Alfred Valette, of the Mercure de France, about his "novel " : Contre Sainte-Beuve, souvenir d'une matinée ; he spoke of its shamelessness, notably because of a homosexual character. The novel is a " implementation of the principles of art of this last part ", a kind of preface put at the end. Valette, who had already rejected Pastiches, a collection of articles, persisted in refusing the Sainte-Beuve as well.
