Extract

As a counterpart to her book on Proust and his precursors (A Foretaste of Proust, 1974), Margaret Mein presents a collection of her conference papers and articles, with two new essays in addition, inquiring into the parallels between Proust's art and that of Wagner, Hardy, Gide, Mauriac and T. S. Eliot. The leitmotiv of the studies is the “recherche de la quiétude de l'âme”, with the corresponding image of the still axis of a revolving wheel, quoted in epigraph from Charles Morgan's novel The Fountain. Introduced by an insightful essay exploring the significance of Proust's “composition en rosace”, the papers reflect on questions concerning artistic creation, religion and grace, homosexuality, childhood, nature, and the symbolism of the wheel, to mention only a few. The analogies pointed out often fail to lead to a clear conclusion, and the recurrence of some quotations and observations results in a redundancy which the author herself admits. However, thanks to the combination of a well-emphasised central argument and the substantial literature on which it draws, the book offers some interesting insights for scholars familiar with Proust's world as well as a relatively easy access for those new to it.

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