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insight. Introspection was the research technique of choice—studies were done with one or two subjects trained to report their mental experience in precise detail. This emphasis on self-observed mental processing, of narrating one’s inward gaze, is similar to Proust’s “modernist” literary style. Théodule Ribot was the founder of modern scientific psychology in France; his 1896 book on the psychology of the emotions included a chapter on olfactory memory, which had been published earlier in the widely read Revue Philosophique. Ribot discussed such “Proustian” matters as odor memory, mental imagery for smell and taste, smell dreams, and smell hallucinations. The Revue was read not only by scientists but by the educated public, and Proust, who devoured periodicals, likely knew of it.

Between 1901 and 1903 the Revue published several articles on emotional memory. One, by a twenty-one-year-old French psychologist named Henri Piéron, contained this observation: “Sometimes, when passing through a certain place, while in a certain physical or mental state, I perceive a scent that, by itself, cannot be expressed or determined, that does not fit into the classification of odors; a composite, mixed scent that suddenly and violently plunges me in an indefinable, completely inexplicable but clearly felt and recognized emotional state.” This sounds a lot like Proust’s version of smell memory—all that’s missing is the madeleine. (Piéron went on to coauthor a textbook and become un grand frommage in French psychology.)

Roger Shattuck identifies yet another French source of Proust’s inspiration. In 1896 the philosopher Henri Bergson published Matter and Memory, a treatise on psychology that gained wide public attention. The nature of memory was at the core of Bergson’s psychology, and he stressed in particular “pure or spontaneous memory,” i.e., personal memories that survive in the unconscious for a long time before being recovered. The similarity to Proust’s involuntary memory was obvious enough that Proust was asked about it in an interview in 1913. He denied being influenced by Bergson, a denial that Shattuck says “can only be termed ingenuous.”

Marc Weiner, a professor of Germanic Studies at Indiana University, offers the sinister speculation that Proust lifted the tea-and-madeleine idea from Richard Wagner. When the composer was exiled from Germany for his political activities, he was unable to find any authentic zwieback biscuits. This led to a severe creative blockage while he was working on Tristan und Isolde. One day he received a shipment of real zwieback from Mathilde Wesendonk, his muse and platonic lover. In a letter, Wagner tells her (tongue-in-cheek) of the miraculous effects of her care package; how, when dipped in milk, the zwieback cured his writer’s block and inspired him to move ahead with the opera. The Wagner-Wesendonk letters were widely read at the turn of the century; a French edition was published in 1905, eight years before Swann’s Way. Weiner mischievously suggests that Proust’s madeleine-soaking was inspired by Wagner’s zwieback-dunking.

The Proust Boosters

Though Proust’s notion of smell memory isn’t very original, that hasn’t stopped psychologists from adopting it with enthusiasm. The first researcher to charge forth under the banner of the soggy madeleine was Brown University’s Trygg Engen. In a 1973 paper in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, he said, “The Proustian view is that odors are not forgotten to the same extent as are other perceptual events. Is there any factual validity for this claim of the artist?” Engen reported that the ability to recognize a set of memorized odors, though not high to begin with, did not drop off much over the course of several weeks. He concluded, “The Proustian insight is validated!” (His exclamation point, not mine.)

Engen’s claim that odor memory doesn’t decay was newsworthy. Mainstream memory theory in the 1970s was based almost exclusively on tests using words or pictures; memory for these stimuli faded according to well-known timetables. Yet from the beginning,