Marcel Proust? Alexander Pope? Frederick A. Blossom? Sydney Schiff? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: A prominent literary figure disapproved of intellectual works filled with abstract discourse and archetypal characters. The critique was expressed as follows:
A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.
This statement has been attributed to the French novelist Marcel Proust and the English poet Alexander Pope? Would you please help me to determine the correct author together with a solid citation?
Reply from Quote Investigator: QI has found no substantive evidence supporting the ascription to Alexander Pope who died in 1744.
Marcel Proust is best known for the multivolume work “A la recherche du temps perdu” (“Remembrance of Things Past” or “In Search of Lost Time”). The seventh and final volume in this series was “Le Temps retrouvé” (“Time Regained” or “Finding Time Again”) published in 1927 which contained the following passage:1
D’où la grossière tentation pour l’écrivain d’écrire des œuvres intellectuelles. Grande indélicatesse. Une œuvre où il ya des théories est comme un objet sur lequel on laisse la marque du prix. Encore cette dernière ne fait-elle qu’exprimer une valeur qu’au contraire en littérature le raisonnement logique diminue.
Below is a translation by Frederick A. Blossom from an edition published in 1932:2
From this comes the vulgar temptation for the writer to write intellectual works. A grave lack of fine feeling! A book in which there are theories is like an article from which the price mark has not been removed. And even at that, a price mark merely expresses value, whereas in literature logical reasoning lessens it.
Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.
A different translation by Sydney Schiff (who used the pseudonym Stephen Hudson) was published by Chatto & Windus in 1931:3
Hence that vulgar temptation of an author to write intellectual works. A great indelicacy. A work in which there are theories is like an object upon which the price is marked. Further, this last only expresses a value which, in literature, is diminished by logical reasoning.
In 1949 the “Tulsa Daily World” of Oklahoma discussed a recently published compilation of quotations by Proust:4
The editor of the Columbia University Press (which some months back published “The Maxims of Marcel Proust” edited by Justin O’Brien) tells us that for all the talk about Proust very few people can honestly say they have read his thousands of pages. Mr O’Brien culled 428 maxims which, he was persuaded, stated Proust’s philosophy.
The newspaper article printed more than a dozen quotations including these three items:
“Each generation of critics does nothing but take the opposite of the truths accepted by their predecessors.”
“A cathedral, a wave in a storm, a dancer’s leap never turn out to be as high as we had hoped.”
“A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price mark has been left.”
In 1952 a newspaper in Orangeburg, South Carolina published the following item which misspelled “Marcel” as “Parcel”:5
Thought for the Day
A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price mark has been left. —Parcel Proust.
In 1957 “The Book of Unusual Quotations” compiled by Rudolf Flesch published an instance using the phrase “price tag” instead of “price mark”:6
A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left. Marcel Proust
In 1977 a newspaper in Sitka, Alaska printed a feature called “Kryptograms from Katlian” which used the quotation as an answer to a puzzle:7
Answer for 672, A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left. Marcel Proust.
In 1991 “Potomac News” of Woodbridge, Virginia printed an instance using the word “ticket”:8
“A work in which there are theories is like an object which still has the ticket that shows its price.” Marcel Proust
In 2021 a newspaper in Sioux City, Iowa implausibly credited Alexander Pope:9
Quote of the Day
“A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.”
Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
In conclusion, Marcel Proust deserves credit for this quotation which he published within “Le Temps retrouvé” in 1927. Several different renderings into English appeared during the following decades:
Image Notes: Illustration of a price tag from geralt at Pixabay. The image has been resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Jon Richfield whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1927, A la recherche du temps perdu: Le Temps retrouvé (In Search of Lost Time: Time Regained) by Marcel Proust, (Alternate Translation: Remembrance of Things Past: The Past Recaptured), Chapter 3, Quote Page 29, Librairie Gallimard: Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française, Paris, France. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1932, Remembrance of Things Past: The Past Recaptured by Marcel Proust, (The Past Recaptured is book 7 of 7), (Omnibus edition containing Cities of the plain; The captive; The sweet cheat gone; The past recaptured), Translation by Frederick A. Blossom, Quote Page 1003, Random House, New York. (Google Books snippet; not yet verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1931, Remembrance of Things Past: Time Regained by Marcel Proust, (Time Regained is book 7 of 7), Translated from the French by Stephen Hudson (Pseudonym of Sydney Schiff), Chapter 3: An Afternoon Party at the House of the Princesse de Guermantes, Chatto & Windus, London. (Project Gutenberg Australia) ↩︎
- 1949 October 2, Tulsa Daily World, Under the Reading Lamp with La Vere Anderson, Section 5, Quote Page 9, Column 1, Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1952 November 1, The Times and Democrat, Thought for the Day, Quote Page 4, Column 1, Orangeburg, South Carolina. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1957, The Book of Unusual Quotations, Compiled by Rudolf Flesch, Topic: Theory, Quote Page 287, Column 1, Harper & Brothers, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1977 August 2, The Daily Sentinel, Kryptograms from Katlian, Quote Page 2, Column 7, Sitka, Alaska. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1991 June 21, Potomac News, Quote, Quote Page B6, Column 4, Woodbridge, Virginia. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 2021 July 6, Sioux City Journal, Quote of the Day, Quote Page A5, Column 1, Sioux City, Iowa. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎