_By_ JOSEPH CONRAD ARNOLD BENNETT ARTHUR SYMONS COMPTON MACKENZIE CLIVE BELL W.J. TURNER CATHERINE CARSWELL E. RICKWORD VIOLET HUNT RALPH WRIGHT ALEC WAUGH GEORGE SAINTSBURY L. PEARSALL SMITH A.B. WALKLEY J. MIDDLETON MURRY STEPHEN HUDSON G.S. STREET ETHEL C. MAYNE FRANCIS BIRRELL REGINALD TURNER DYNELEY HUSSEY
_Printed in Great Britain All Rights Reserved_
III. The Prophet of Despair: _by_ FRANCIS BIRRELL 12
IV. A Sensitive Petronius: _by_ RALPH WRIGHT 31
V. The “Little Proust”: _by_ L. PEARSALL SMITH 52
VI. A Reader’s Gratitude: _by_ COMPTON MACKENZIE 59
VIII. Proust’s Women: _by_ CATHERINE CARSWELL 66
IX. The Best Record: _by_ REGINALD TURNER 78
XI. The Spell of Proust: _by_ ETHEL C. MAYNE 90
XII. A New Psychometry: _by_ A.B. WALKLEY 96
XIII. Proust and the Modern Consciousness: _by_ J. MIDDLETON MURRY 102
XV. M. Vinteuil’s Sonata: _by_ DYNELEY HUSSEY 117
XVI. A Note on the Little Phrase: _by_ W.J. TURNER 124
XVII. Proust as Creator: _by_ JOSEPH CONRAD 126
XVIII. A Moment to Spare: _by_ G. SAINTSBURY 129
XIX. A Real World in Fiction: _by_ G.S. STREET 131
XX. The Birth of a Classic: _by_ EDGELL RICKWORD 134
XXI. A Casuist in Souls: _by_ ARTHUR SYMONS 138
XXII. The Last Word: _by_ ARNOLD BENNETT 144
The death of Marcel Proust in Paris on November 18, 1922, and the manner in which the news of his death was, by no means numerously, reported in London, brought into question the extent of his rumoured rather than defined influence over readers in this country. This question it was natural that I should ask myself, for I had recently published an English version of the first part of his great novel, _Du Côté de chez Swann_, and was then about half way through the translation of its sequel, _A l’Ombre des Jeunes Filles en Fleurs_. The writer of a savage, though evidently sincere attack on Proust which a London newspaper published within forty-eight hours of his death seemed to assume that he had already a considerable (if misguided) following here, and it occurred to me that I might obtain, from writers who were my friends, and from others who had expressed their admiration of Proust in English periodicals, a body of critical opinion similar to that which, I learned, was being collected in Paris by the editor of the _Nouvelle Revue Française_. To test the worth of my idea, I began with the seniors. Mr. Saintsbury—who (in this respect only) might have served as the model for the Marquis de Norpois, whose promptness in answering a letter “was so astonishing that whenever my father, just after posting one to him, saw his handwriting upon an envelope, his first thought was always one of annoyance that their letters must, unfortunately, have crossed in the post; which, one was led to suppose, bestowed upon him the special and luxurious privilege of extraordinary deliveries and collections at all hours of the day and night”—replied at once, and Mr. Conrad soon followed, with letters of which each correspondent authorised me to make whatever use I chose.