SALVATION THROUGH RUSKIN .63wrote nor spoke, and refused, like Aunt Leonie, to move, first
from his house, at last even from his bedroom. But Proust's
sorrow at the passing of his master was short-lived; 'my grief is
healthy and full of consolations,' he told Marie N ordlinger, 'for I
realise what a trivial thing death is, when I see how intensely this
dead man lives, and how I admire and listen to his words, and
seek to understand and obey him, more than I would for many
who are living'.
He was consoled also by the knowledge that, during the brief
wave of publicity 'that follows the death of a great author, his
writings on Ruskin would have news-value; and he acted so
promptly 'that his obituary-signed, however, 'Only with his
initials-appeared only a week later, on the 27th, in the Chronique
des arts et de fa curiosite. This periodical was a weekly supplement,
containing current art news, to the Garette des Beaux-Arts, edited
by Charles Ephrussi, the lesser originaJ of Swann. Ephrussi was
eager for more, and Proust took the opportunity to announce in
the obituary that 'the Garette des Beaux-Arts will have the
honour to give a just idea and impression of Ruskin's work in a
forthcoming number'. He also contrived to be introduced, prob-
ably by Leon Daudet, to Gaston Calmette, the new editor of Le
Figaro, in which Daudet was writing at this time. Calmette was
exceptionally gifted with the charm and affability which are so
unexpected yet sO often to be found in editors. "But absolutely,
my dear fellow-but certainly, but of course, I shall be only too
delighted," he would repeat, in a deep, purring voice, darting a
velvet glance under his pince-nez. During the next fourteen
years he accepted numerous articles from Proust, who expressed
his genuine liking, his overwhelming but uneasy gratitude, by
invitations to dine with noble guests, expensive gifts, and finally
by the dedication of Du Core de cher Swann. Since Le Figaro was
the favourite newspaper of the aristocracy, Proust's articles no
doubt helped a little to make him known as a writer, but also, still
more, to perpetuate his unfortunate reputation as a society
amateur. Sometimes, with tongue in cheek, he would write under
a pseudonym, and make his articles sly pastiches of the Figaro
gossip-column cliches^1 ; sometimes, as now, under his own name,
1 Several such pastiches appear in A la Recherche, notably (though this is
supposed to be published in Le Gaulois) the obituary on Swann, 'a Parisian
whose wit was universally appreciated' (III, 199-100),