Essays foreshadowing the great themes of Remembrance of Things Past Beginning with the remarkable essay "Contre Saint-Beuve, " this surprising and stimulating critical collection presents Proust's views on the contemporary writing of his era, on painting and painters, and on such literary masters of the nineteenth century as Tolstoy, Goethe, and Stendhal. "The whole volume is an impassioned plea by Proust himself . . . it will enlighten readers of Remembrance of Things Past."--New York Times Book Review