Abstract
After étude and essai, we choose to examine the termessayist. Although Proust doesn't use it a priori, he is familiar with it. In his article on Balzac, Faguet criticizes the essay in the novel, which he believes the author of La Comédie humaine practices. Proust remembered this when creating Norpois and Brichot. Faguet castigates Balzac as " essayist ", interrupting the narrative with " dissertations ", " conférences ". In Contre Sainte-Beuve, Proust blamed Faguet, and in his own lifetime pastiched him in Le Figaro.
The term essayist comes from Montaigne and his Essais, but also from the English language with essayism, the English genre of the essay. What can we say about Proust's relationship with Montaigne ? As early as January 1914, Henri Ghéon, writing in La NRF, referred to Du côté de chez Swann as " une œuvre de loisir " ; but, by entertaining, doesn't artistic work become, at a certain point, vain ? Otium studiosum or idleness, wasted time ? Nevertheless, the critic praises Proust's observation that " l'hypersensibilité moderne ". Ambiguous, the article is read by the writer as a scathing indictment. On the other hand, the comparison between essay and novel can be positive for Jacques Boulanger, who wrote in L'Opinion at the time of the controversy surrounding Proust's Goncourt award. His article responded to that of Jean de Pierrefeu in Les Débats, who criticized a " collection of insomnia written by a voluntary recluse ". Proust was thus criticized for not being a fighting writer, for not respecting literary genres, and even for lapsing into scientific psychological inquiry. In defense of Proust, Boulanger quotes Montaigne favorably : if Proust is, according to Pierrefeu, a recluse, is Montaigne a man of action ? In fact, the myth of Montaigne secluded in his tower is now outdated. As for the confusion of genres, Boulanger suggests that Proust's work should be classed as an essay, Montaigne being a famous precedent.
