For many years I have subscribed to Vanity Fair, for the library where I work. The last page is the only one that I sometimes read because of the Proustian questionnaire. I have been vaguely curious about the name. I never really associated it with Marcel Proust because the 2 are just worlds apart. I thought maybe there is somebody in the editorial staff of the magazine with that name who uses that page for his imprint. Anyway, just lately I saw the phrase used a few times in the print media. And it looks to me like it is indeed an eponym. I googled the phrase and the one anecdotal explanation I found does not really say much. Supposedly, Proust once upon a time was asked to name his favorite paintings at the Louvre, to which he has not been to for 15 years.
There must be a more elaborate explanation than this.
If you know of one, please let me know.
Thanks

Jackie, dr. bill, W'ON I found time!

I guess you have to understand the manner in which Proust wrote to understand how to use Proustian -- I don't. (to me it means "sleep-inducing" : )

here is how some others have used it:

Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Proust, his writings, or his style.
1926 A. Huxley Jesting Pilate i. 139 The decaying relics of feudalism.. form the stormy background to the Proustian comedy. 1929 [see imitation 5]. 1931 Times Lit. Suppl. 2 Apr. 274/2 The Proustian distinction between ‘involuntary memory’.. and ‘voluntary memory’. 1936 L. P. Smith Reperusals & Re-Collections ii. 23 An immense leisurely, true novel, written with a Tolstoyan or Proustian amplitude, which allows space for an immense copiousness of detail and for infinite digressions. 1943 J. Lees-Milne Ancestral Voices (1975) 186 Lady Crewe believes no relationship, no emotion, no motive to be straightforward, and suspects everything and everyone. This is truly Proustian. 1958 Spectator 10 Jan. 51/1 Too often the adjective ‘Proustian’ evokes a kind of decadent Barsetshire[?]. 1976 A. Powell Infants of Spring viii. 123 A lack of interest for individuals in what might be called the Proustian sense was perhaps characteristic, too, of the whole of the Arts Society. [e.a.]

-joe (zzzzzz) friday

, W'ON I found time!

Good to see you posting again, wordcrazy! I don't have anything on this particular query, although Vanity Fair is a novel by William Makepeace Thackery.

Trout season opens this weekend in New Jersey, so I may be a distant voice for awhile...but stick around this time, we missed you!



Your Happy Epeolatrist!

There is this rather pretentious show on the cable network "Bravo" called "Inside the Actor's Studio." Each episode they interview an actor or actress, and at the end they always conslude with a brief questionnaire that is attriubuted to "Bernard Pivot." (http://home.uchicago.edu/~rpmarcin/10questions.html) Anybody know anything about Bernard Pivot? Was he a writer or a game show host or what? Just curious.

wordcrazy--oh, I'm SO very glad you're back!! [kiss e]

tsuwm, your X-refer site (you do realize that that is "your" site in my eyes, forever and ever, don't you?) tells me that Barsetshire is connected with two authors. The creator of this mythical county was Anthony Trollope, 1815 - 1882; he wrote six novels known as the Barsetshire novels. Apparently this was the first time that the same characters appeared in more than one book. I found no details on how they might be Proustian. A later author, Angela Margaret Thirkell, 1891 - 1961, wrote no less that thirty novels based on the characters in the original series. Now that I think about it, I do believe it is likely that the sleep-inducing quality may have been ascribed to the second set. I don't think even I would want to read 30 novels about the same characters.

Dear Wordcrazy: a couple decades ago there was an over-worked cliché for Proutian: "stream of consciousness". I got quite a few interesting sites searching for "Proustian stream of consciousness" Try searching for that combination.

The first two Barchester novels (The Warden and Barchester Towers) have been televised. I still treasure the memory of Nigel Hawthorne's outraged yell of "Slope".

Bingley