We all know what Proust’s novel is about. A tale of quest and long-delayed discovery, A la recherche du temps perdu (1913-27) is an artist’s novel where the narrator aspires to become a writer and eventually decides to write… an artist’s novel. It takes him a long time to arrive at that point. We have to read close to three thousand pages of Remembrance of Things Past before the narrator finally finds his material - himself and his past life. In the final volume, the grand design becomes apparent. If we look at Proust’s novel from another angle, a different scenario comes into view. We realize that the narrator, as a writer in waiting, must hold back. He must resist. He must delay, postpone, persevere - or else the climax would come early. In volume after volume, he sounds his fears that he’ll never succeed at becoming a writer, much less acquire artistic recognition. As he must. To be sure, some way into the novel he gets a piece of writing accepted for publication in the pages of Le Figaro. When he sees it in print, he is ecstatic; after all, it is his debut as writer.