NOTES ON PROUST
533
of Marcel Proust.
Besides being a handbook of data, in which respect
it is extremely useful,
The Two Worlds
attempts a critical rehabilita–
tion of Proust, and here it is uneven. His praise is so compromised by
caution that Mr. March does not succeed in sounding judicious about
Proust: he gives the impression of not trusting him. No embracing
notion of the work or the sensibility is forthcoming. Gingerly, as if he
were a last year's birdnest, Proust is taken apart, a twig, a straw, a piece
of string. Writing about
Remembrance of Things Past,
Mr. March does
at least attempt a literary solution of
what may aft er all be literary
problems-Albertine,
homosexuality, snobbishness-but like so many
French critics of Proust in recent times, he too often falls back on the
scandal and illness of the novelist's personal life. "He had a tendency
to asthma and to homosexuality; he rationalized both, but was unable
to avoid the conviction that both were in a sense his own fault." Such
statements compose Mr. March's final chapter, which he entitles "The
Meaning of Proust."
There is enough admirable comment in
The Two Worlds
to suggest
that Mr. March is fonder of his author than his own narrow range of
critical ideas permits him to show. And it must be admitted that to
write in a large summary way about Proust is now a formidable task.
It may be several generations before he is appreciated as he was appre–
ciated by his contemporaries, and understood .as he was understood
by them. Even Johnson could still confidently argue the superiority
of Shakespeare's comedies over his tragedies, and vex himself about
what strike us today as ghostly issues. In its lesser way Proust's reputa–
tion-to the extent that it is alive at all- is now in this fault-finding,
this picking-and-choosing stage. Nor do fresh perspectives on the work
propose themselves readily; so that Mr. March falls back on stock ones.
If, for example, he is capable of saying with a straight face that "We
cannot accept his estimate of the prevalence of homosexuality," it is
because he is at this point trying to read the novel as "a realistic pano–
rama of society." Its manifest extravagance in social portraiture warns
that it is equally a fantastic melodrama of humanity. In the program–
matic last volume of the novel, moreover, there is a great deal of
explicit clamor against social realism. Finally, Proust's letters return
constantly to this same theme.
In her selection of the letters Mrs. Curtiss gives preference to
those dealing with Proust's literary plans and tastes. And this seems
right, for his personal lctters are certainly not of the first order. The
best correspondents are apt to be either settled dilettantes like Horace
Walpole or confirmed professionals like Flaubert and Lawrcnce.
It
was