{"id":19,"date":"2005-08-17T10:30:51","date_gmt":"2005-08-17T14:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/nucleus-import\/?p=19"},"modified":"2021-10-10T17:36:50","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T21:36:50","slug":"proust-questionnare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/proust-questionnare\/","title":{"rendered":"Proust Questionnare"},"content":{"rendered":"
Marcel Proust<\/div>\n

The young Marcel was asked to fill out questionnaires at two social events: one when he was 13, another when he was 20. Proust did not invent this party game; he simply responded to the questionnaires. At the birthday party of Antoinette Felix-Faure, the 13-year-old Marcel was asked to answer the following questions in the birthday book, and here’s what he said: * What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
\n To be separated from Mama
\n * Where would you like to live?
\n In the country of the Ideal, or, rather, of my ideal
\n * What is your idea of earthly happiness?
\n 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
\n * To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
\n To a life deprived of the works of genius
\n * Who are your favorite heroes of fiction?
\n Those of romance and poetry, those who are the expression of an ideal rather than an imitation of the real
\n * Who are your favorite characters in history?<\/p>\n

A mixture of Socrates, Pericles, Mahomet, Pliny the Younger and Augustin Thierry
\n * Who are your favorite heroines in real life?
\n A woman of genius leading an ordinary life
\n * Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
\n Those who are more than women without ceasing to be womanly; everything that is tender, poetic, pure and in every way beautiful
\n * Your favorite painter?
\n Meissonier
\n * Your favorite musician?
\n Mozart
\n * The quality you most admire in a man?
\n Intelligence, moral sense
\n * The quality you most admire in a woman?
\n Gentleness, naturalness, intelligence
\n * Your favorite virtue?
\n All virtues that are not limited to a sect: the universal virtues
\n * Your favorite occupation?
\n Reading, dreaming, and writing verse
\n * Who would you have liked to be?
\n 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. <\/p>\n

Seven years after the first questionnaire, Proust was asked, at another social event, to fill out another; the questions are much the same, but the answers somewhat different, indicative of his traits at 20:<\/p>\n

* Your most marked characteristic?
\n A craving to be loved, or, to be more precise, to be caressed and spoiled rather than to be admired
\n * The quality you most like in a man?
\n Feminine charm
\n * The quality you most like in a woman?
\n A man’s virtues, and frankness in friendship
\n * What do you most value in your friends?
\n Tenderness – provided they possess a physical charm which makes their tenderness worth having
\n * What is your principle defect?
\n Lack of understanding; weakness of will
\n * What is your favorite occupation?
\n Loving
\n * What is your dream of happiness?
\n 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.
\n * What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
\n Never to have known my mother or my grandmother
\n * What would you like to be?
\n Myself – as those whom I admire would like me to be
\n * In what country would you like to live?
\n One where certain things that I want would be realized – and where feelings of tenderness would always be reciprocated. [Proust’s underlining]
\n * What is your favorite color?
\n Beauty lies not in colors but in thier harmony
\n * What is your favorite flower?
\n Hers – but apart from that, all
\n * What is your favorite bird?
\n The swallow
\n * Who are your favorite prose writers?
\n At the moment, Anatole France and Pierre Loti
\n * Who are your favorite poets?
\n Baudelaire and Alfred de Vigny
\n * Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
\n Hamlet
\n * Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
\n Phedre (crossed out) Berenice
\n * Who are your favorite composers?
\n Beethoven, Wagner, Schumann
\n * Who are your favorite painters?
\n Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt
\n * Who are your heroes in real life?
\n Monsieur Darlu, Monsieur Boutroux (professors)
\n * Who are your favorite heroines of history?
\n Cleopatra
\n * What are your favorite names?
\n I only have one at a time
\n * What is it you most dislike?
\n My own worst qualities
\n * What historical figures do you most despise?
\n I am not sufficiently educated to say
\n * What event in military history do you most admire?
\n My own enlistment as a volunteer!
\n * What reform do you most admire?
\n (no response)
\n * What natural gift would you most like to possess?
\n Will power and irresistible charm
\n * How would you like to die?
\n A better man than I am, and much beloved
\n * What is your present state of mind?
\n Annoyance at having to think about myself in order to answer these questions
\n * To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
\n Those that I understand
\n * What is your motto?
\n I prefer not to say, for fear it might bring me bad luck. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The young Marcel was asked to fill out questionnaires at two social events: one when he was 13, another when he was 20. Proust did not invent this party game; he simply responded to the questionnaires. At the birthday party of Antoinette Felix-Faure, the 13-year-old Marcel was asked to answer the following questions in the […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":549,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/549"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}