SOURCE: France, Anatole. “Preface to Les plaisirs et les jours, by Marcel Proust.” In Prefaces, Introductions and Other Uncollected Papers, translated by J. Lewis May, pp. 223-28. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1928.

In the following essay, France provides a laudatory assessment of Pleasures and Regrets.

Why did [Marcel Proust] ask me to stand sponsor to his book, and why did I promise to undertake that very pleasant but quite superfluous task? His book is like a young poet, full of rare and delicate charm. It bears with it its own commendation; it pleads its own cause and offers itself in its own despite.

Of course it is young. It is young with the author's own youthfulness. But it is old too, as old as the world. It is the leafage of springtime on the ancient branches of the age-old forest; yet it might be said that the fresh...