I was listening to Richardson’s Roundup this afternoon…well…The Roundup (enjoy your new pursuit, Mr. Richardson). They kept mentioning ‘The Proust Questionaire’. So, I looked it up. Evidently, Marcel Proust (July 1871 – November 1922) was asked to fill out a questionaire at two points of his life…once when he was 13 and attending the birthday party of Antoinette Felix-Faure (which went as follows):
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What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
– To be separated from Mama
Where would you like to live?
– In the country of the Ideal, or, rather, of my ideal
What is your idea of earthly happiness?
– To live in contact with those I love, with the beauties of nature, with a quantity of books and music, and to have, within easy distance, a French theater
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
– To a life deprived of the works of genius
Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
– Those of romance and poetry, those who are the expression of an ideal rather than an imitation of the real
Who are your favorite characters in history?
– A mixture of Socrates, Pericles, Mahomet, Pliny the Younger and Augustin Thierry
Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
– A woman of genius leading an ordinary life
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
– Those who are more than women without ceasing to be womanly; everything that is tender, poetic, pure and in every way beautiful
Your favorite painter?
– Meissonier
Your favorite musician?
– Mozart
The quality you most admire in a man?
– Intelligence, moral sense
The quality you most admire in a woman?
– Gentleness, naturalness, intelligence
Your favorite virtue?
– All virtues that are not limited to a sect: the universal virtues
Your favorite occupation?
– Reading, dreaming, and writing verse
Who would you have liked to be?
– Since the question does not arise, I prefer not to answer it. All the same, I should very much have liked to be Pliny the Younger.
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“A woman of genius leading an ordinary life”
Shit damn…he would have ~loved~ me….hehehehehe
Seriously, though….did ~all~ educated thirteen year olds of that era answer questions like that? I mean…hell. Okay, I’m sure not ~all~ of them did, but I’m 31 and have answered dozens of questionaires in my lifetime. I’m not fantastically educated or anything…but I have a difficult time when asked what my favourite food is. Anyway….seven years later, our hero is at another social event and asked to fill out a similar questionaire:
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Your most marked characteristic?
– A craving to be loved, or, to be more precise, to be caressed and spoiled rather than to be admired
The quality you most like in a man?
– Feminine charm
The quality you most like in a woman?
– A man’s virtues, and frankness in friendship
What do you most value in your friends?
– Tenderness – provided they possess a physical charm which makes their tenderness worth having
What is your principle defect?
– Lack of understanding; weakness of will
What is your favorite occupation?
– Loving
What is your dream of happiness?
– Not, I fear, a very elevated one. I really haven’t the courage to say what it is, and if I did I should probably destroy it by the mere fact of putting it into words.
What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
– Never to have known my mother or my grandmother
What would you like to be?
– Myself – as those whom I admire would like me to be
In what country would you like to live?
– One where certain things that I want would be realized – and where feelings of tenderness would always be reciprocated.
What is your favorite color?
– Beauty lies not in colors but in thier harmony
What is your favorite flower?
– Hers – but apart from that, all
What is your favorite bird?
– The swallow
Who are your favorite prose writers?
– At the moment, Anatole France and Pierre Loti
Who are your favoite poets?
– Baudelaire and Alfred de Vigny
Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
– Hamlet
Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
– Phedre (crossed out) Berenice
Who are your favorite composers?
– Beethoven, Wagner, Shuhmann
Who are your favorite painters?
– Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt
Who are your heroes in real life?
– Monsieur Darlu, Monsieur Boutroux (professors)
Who are your favorite heroines of history?
– Cleopatra
What are your favorite names?
– I only have one at a time
What is it you most dislike?
– My own worst qualities
What historical figures do you most despise?
– I am not sufficiently educated to say
What event in military history do you most admire?
– My own enlistment as a volunteer!
What reform do you most admire?
– (no response)
What natural gift would you most like to possess?
– Will power and irresistible charm
How would you like to die?
– A better man than I am, and much beloved
What is your present state of mind?
– Annoyance at having to think about myself in order to answer these questions
To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
– Those that I understand
What is your motto?
– I prefer not to say, for fear it might bring me bad luck.
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I think I ought to start reading Proust…
(though…he did like Wagner…hmm)
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