Marcel Proust contemplates his empire.

The French rag Télérama took a survey of 100 French writers, asking them what their ten favorite books were. And guess who won the race, mains down? Mais, Marcel Proust bien sûr! His A la recherche du temps perdu was the absolute fave, cited by one in three writers. Which caused one French litt sites to declare, “It’s definite, Marcel Proust has ruined a generation of writers!”

James Joyce‘s Ulysses and Homer’s Odyssey and the perennial fave, La Princess de Clève by Madame de Lafayette made the top of the list. And among foreign authors chosen were Faulkner, Dostoyevski, Virginia Woolf and Franz Kafka. And for the home team were Flau­bert, Céline, Stendhal and Rimbaud. No real surprises there.

Also, very few contemporary writers were named by their peers. Among the chosen few were: Yves Bonnefoy, Jean Echenoz, Pierre Michon, Patrick Modiano et Philippe Sollers. What does this tell us about French writers today? Has Marcel really ruined them? Or was it something in their childhood? Some cookie, or Lit teacher? I have absolutely no idea. But it must have been pleasant for the Télérama interviewers to chat with 100 writers about their ten favorite books….