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Marcel Proust on Reading and Dying

Alain de Botton’s How Proust Can Change Your Life? tries to find an inspiration and explore various themes out of Proust’s essays, letters, and his fictional work. So far, it succeeds to achieve its goal, it’s a clever book with an amusing and an evoking title. No prior knowledge of Proust or his epic, seven volume novel In Search of Lost Time is necessary in order to read and enjoy this book but after reading it, half of you will go for the first volume of In Search of Lost Time if you haven’t read Proust’s work before.

In summer of 1922, a French newspaper formulated an elaborate question for its contributors. Marcel Proust was one of the contributors. The question asked was:

An American scientist announces that the world will end, or at least that such a huge part of the continent will be destroyed, and in such a sudden way, that death will be the certain fate of hundreds of millions of people. If this prediction were confirmed, what do you think would be its effects on people between the time when they acquired the aforementioned certainly and the moment of cataclysm? Finally, as far as you’re concerned, what would you do in this last hour?

An American scientist announces that the world will end, or at least that such a huge part of the continent will be destroyed, and in such a sudden way, that death will be the certain fate of hundreds of millions of people. If this prediction were confirmed, what do you think would be its effects on people between the time when they acquired the aforementioned certainly and the moment of cataclysm? Finally, as far as you’re concerned, what would you do in this last hour?

Reclusive Proust sent the following reply to the French Newspaper:

I think that life would suddenly seem wonderful to us if we were threatened to die as you say. Just think of how many projects, travels, love affairs, studies, it—our life—hides from us, made invisible by our laziness which, certain of a future delays them occasionally. But let all this threaten to become impossible forever, how beautiful it would become again! Ah! If only the cataclysm doesn’t happen this time, we won’t miss visiting the new galleries of the Louvre, throwing ourselves at the feet of Miss X, making a trip to India. The cataclysm doesn’t happen, we don’t do any of it, because we find ourselves back in the heart of normal life, where negligence deadens desire. And yet we shouldn’t have needed the cataclysm to love life today. It would have been enough to think that we are humans, and that death may come this evening.

I think that life would suddenly seem wonderful to us if we were threatened to die as you say. Just think of how many projects, travels, love affairs, studies, it—our life—hides from us, made invisible by our laziness which, certain of a future delays them occasionally.

But let all this threaten to become impossible forever, how beautiful it would become again! Ah! If only the cataclysm doesn’t happen this time, we won’t miss visiting the new galleries of the Louvre, throwing ourselves at the feet of Miss X, making a trip to India.

The cataclysm doesn’t happen, we don’t do any of it, because we find ourselves back in the heart of normal life, where negligence deadens desire. And yet we shouldn’t have needed the cataclysm to love life today. It would have been enough to think that we are humans, and that death may come this evening.

Life is fragile and it took Proust seven volumes to describe the value of life and its everyday moments. In Search of Lost Time was an instantaneous success. Moreover, Proust being a literature devotee in the whole course of his life, draws a relation between a person’s life and the books he read. This results in a person accepting art properly:

In reality, every reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have experienced in himself. And the recognition by the reader in his own self what the book says is the proof of its veracity.

In reality, every reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have experienced in himself. And the recognition by the reader in his own self what the book says is the proof of its veracity.

Moreover, Alain de Botton goes on exploring Marcel Proust in this guidebook such as Proust’s thoughts on enjoying your vacation, reviving a relationship, achieving original and uncliched articulation, being a good host, recognizing love, and understanding why you should never sleep with someone on a first date.

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Athena says: May 18, 2015 at 2:58 PM I love this book it got me into Proust and then that was another revelation too, thanks for sharing :)
Michael (contemplativemoorings) says: May 19, 2015 at 9:22 AM "In reality, every reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have experienced in himself. And the recognition by the reader in his own self what the book says is the proof of its veracity." I love this quote...I hadn't thought this way before, but I think it must be true...Thanks :-)

I love this book it got me into Proust and then that was another revelation too, thanks for sharing :)

Aman(@amanhimself) says: May 18, 2015 at 5:29 PM You're welcome Athena :)

You're welcome Athena :)

"In reality, every reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have experienced in himself. And the recognition by the reader in his own self what the book says is the proof of its veracity."

I love this quote...I hadn't thought this way before, but I think it must be true...Thanks :-)

Aman(@amanhimself) says: May 19, 2015 at 10:48 AM You're most welcome and thanks for visiting :)

You're most welcome and thanks for visiting :)

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