" On reading "

Abstract

What is an essay from Proust's youth, and when does Proust become an essayist ? Proust's high-school years, his years of study and his time spent in society gave rise to numerous texts - articles, chronicles, prose poems, salons, art studies. But none of them are essays.

Essayism begins with " Sur la lecture ", the preface to Sésame et les lys. This text marks a temptation, or even a turning point, for Proust as an essayist. In 1907, Proust published a number of articles in Le Figaro, confirming this thesis and also marking the resumption of writing after the mourning associated with Madame Proust's death. These were " Sentiments filiaux d'un parricide ", " Journées de lecture " and, in particular, " Impressions de route en automobile ", a primordial text, integrated into the novel under the pen of the narrator at the end of " Combray ".

" Sur la lecture ", first published in 1905, bears the germ of the essay, with all its singularities : a massive first-person , memories, the skepticism proper to the essay tradition, mobility, fantasy and humor reminiscent of the English essay. The " moi " of " Sur la lecture " is not the " je " of La Bible d'Amiens, which is a " je " of author, of regie. What's more, the text offers the outline of " Combray " and Le Temps retrouvé, but also almost the entire theory of Proustian literature : the denunciation of philology and idolatry, the theses of the Contre Sainte-Beuve, the notion of the standard sentence defining the writer, as well as the retrospective unity of a work. By 1904, Proust was already reading Maeterlinck - Le Double Jardin, then La Sagesse et la destinée and La Vie des abeilles - and drawing inspiration from him for his notes and comments on translations, which gave rise to intense work and sometimes constituted articles in themselves. In fact, the essayist turn, which is a temptation of the essayistic novel, had already been taken before Madame Proust's death in September 1905 : the author's investment in the writing of " Sur la lecture " helps to defend this thesis.

The text already stands out for its style - long sentences - which Proust deplores. He regrets not writing like Madame Straus, Bizet's widow, whose " clarté ", the " équilibre délicieux " of sentences charm him. He says " trier [ses] longues soies comme [il] les file ", an expression echoed by Anna de Noailles, who warmly praises " [les] soies adorables " in Proust's text. At Le Figaro, André Beaunier is all praise : the books read are forgotten, but, " calendriers des jours enfuis ", we search with concern and delight for reflections of a past lost forever. Proust's title would also fit in well with pages by Montaigne, whose " Des trois commerces ", in particular, evokes love, friendship and reading.

The article is often published as a stand-alone introduction to Proust and his work : it is the obstacles to reading that we remember, while we forget the books ; this is indeed the thesis of Le Temps retrouvé. Contrary to Ruskin's argument, reading is not conversation, which is entertainment - like friendship - and the opposite of the solitary work of literature. Love, on the other hand, leads to greater depth. In terms of form, the decisive invention is to have placed the example before the argument.

What are the dangers of reading, according to Proust's text ? First and foremost, literary intoxication is a distraction from the spiritual life, when you read like Madame Bovary or the disciples of Paul Bourget. Such an idea reveals a fear of the democratization of reading, as if the masses were not ready for it. Three other dangers lurk for readers : imitation - alienation from the author's thought ; erudition - passion for the little fact, mistaken for the truth ; idolatry of the literate - confusion of life with art. To Ruskin, the literalist, the scholar, Proust contrasts Maeterlinck, the essayist, whose mind is perpetually open. Proust equates the dangers of reading with friendship and worldliness. Sainte-Beuve also appears in the notes to this preface, not least because of his unfamiliarity with the writers of his time. For all these reasons, " Sur la lecture " is indeed a short essay.