The Proust Questionnaire

February 06, 2012

I just finished listening to an audiobook of Hitch-22, the late Christopher Hitchens' memoir. I’ve long been an admirer of Mr. Hitchens, not so much for his often controversial opinions, but rather for his humor, intelligence, erudition, and love of literature. Late in the book, Mr. Hitchens invokes the Proust Questionnaire, which he then answers as a way to describe himself in brief. I had never heard of any such questionnaire, so I decided to find out more.

It turns out that the Proust Questionnaire was not invented by the French writer Marcel Proust. This sort of questionnaire was very popular as a party game in 19th century, functioning much like the missives modern teens write in school yearbooks or the popular "personality tests" on Facebook. Proust’s answers to two such quizzes, first when he was 13 and later at the age of 20, became famous when they became public after his death, thus lending his name to such questionnaires. The particular sets of questions he answered have since been held to be very revelatory, a window into the soul of the answerer. The most influential modern version is Vanity Fair magazine’s “Proust Questionnaire” celebrity interview at the end of every issue since 1993. You too can join the ranks of the famous by taking the online Vanity Fair Proust Questionnaire.

Searching for lost time,

Jeff D.
Grandview Branch

Image Credit "Proust!" by Flickr user LWY via Flickr's Creative Commons.