It’s name and modern popularity as a form of interview is owed to the responses given by the French writer Marcel Proust (1871-1922). At the end of the 19th century, when Proust was still in his teens, he answered a questionnaire in an English-language confession album belonging to his friend Antoinette entitled “An album to Record Thoughts, Feelings, etc.” At that time, it was popular among English families to answer such a list of questions that revealed the taste and aspirations of the taker.
Herewith Anne’s replies…
Your favourite virtue.
Loyalty
Your favourite qualities in a man.
Intelligence
Your favourite qualities in a woman.
Same
Your chief characteristic.
Empathy
What you appreciate the most in your friends.
Commitment, humor and honesty
Your main fault
Perfectionism
Your favourite occupation.
Designing jewelry
Your idea of happiness.
Peace
Your idea of misery.
War
If not yourself, who would you be?
A writer or a painter
Where would you like to live?
Paris
Your favourite colour and flower?
Red and Peony
Your favourite bird?
Nightingale
Your favourite prose authors?
Marguerite Duras, Milan Kundera
Your favourite poets?
Fernando Pessao, Leonard Nolens
Your favourite heroes in fiction?
Sherlock Holmes
Your favourite heroines in fiction?
Mrs Dalloway
Your favourite painters and composers.
Lucian Freud, Balthus, Mark Rothko, Dirk Vander Eecken, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Sergej Rachmaninov, Pyotr Tchaikovsky
Your favourite heroes in real life.
Humanitarians
Your favourite heroines in real life.
Same
What characters in history do you most dislike?
Invadors
Your heroines in World history.
Marie Curie, Clara Schumann
Your favourite food and drink.
Oysters and Côte du Rhône Red Wine
Your favourite names.
Thomas and Sarah
What I hate the most
Commercials with speaking food
World history characters I hate the most
Hitler, Napoleon
The military event I admire the most
None
The reform I admire the most
The enlightenment
The natural talent I’d like to be gifted with
Talent for music
How I wish to die
The pain-free kind
What is your present state of mind.
Happiness
For what fault have you most toleration?
Absent-minded
Your favourite motto?
“La vie me sourit”
