Page 150 - swanns-way

did he reserve the duties of saying in all seriousness what he
thought about things, of formulating judgments which he
would not put between inverted commas; and when would
he cease to give himself up to occupations of which at the
same, time he made out that they were absurd? I noticed,
too, in the manner in which Swann spoke to me of Bergot-
te, something which, to do him justice, was not peculiar to
himself, but was shared by all that writer’s admirers at that
time, at least by my mother’s friend and by Dr. du Boulbon.
Like Swann, they would say of Bergotte: ‘He has a charm-
ing mind, so individual, he has a way of his own of saying
things, which is a little far-fetched, but so pleasant. You nev-
er need to look for his name on the title-page, you can tell his
work at once.’ But none of them had yet gone so far as to say
‘He is a great writer, he has great talent.’ They did not even
credit him with talent at all. They did not speak, because
they were not aware of it. We are very slow in recognising in
the peculiar physiognomy of a new writer the type which is
labelled ‘great talent’ in our museum of general ideas. Sim-
ply because that physiognomy is new and strange, we can
find in it no resemblance to what we are accustomed to call
talent. We say rather originality, charm, delicacy, strength;
and then one day we add up the sum of these, and find that
it amounts simply to talent.
‘Are there any books in which Bergotte has written about
Berma?’ I asked M. Swann.
‘I think he has, in that little essay on Racine, but it must
be out of print. Still, there has perhaps been a second im-
pression. I will find out. Anyhow, I can ask Bergotte himself

150 Swann’s Way