Random Personality Quizzes

It turns out that those random personality quizzes people are always forwarding around are by no means a product of the internet age. In fact here are two that Marcel Proust filled out at parties. One when he was 13 (1890)and one when he was 20 (1897 obviously).
Apparently the questions haven't changed all that much. I'm tempted to send the one he filled out around as an internet experiment. I would magine that few of the answers would be similar -- and not just because they would be full of mispellings and emoticons.

Here are some of my favorite answers from when he was 13 :

What is your idea of earthly happiness?

To live in contact with those I love, with the beauties of nature, with a quantity of books and music, and to have, within easy distance, a French theater

The quality you most admire in a woman?

Gentleness, naturalness, intelligence

I can definitely get behind both of those. I'm not so sure about this one though:

Who would you have liked to be?

Since the question does not arise, I prefer not to answer it. All the same, I should very much have liked to be Pliny the Younger.

Um. Yeah that Pliny the Younger -- now there's someone I wish I could've been. Er... he was so um... historical and stuff.

The 20 year old (1897) one is even more interesting:

Your most marked characteristic?

A craving to be loved, or, to be more precise, to be caressed and spoiled rather than to be admired

The quality you most like in a man?

Feminine charm

The quality you most like in a woman?

A man's virtues, and frankness in friendship

What is your dream of happiness?

Not, I fear, a very elevated one. I really haven't the courage to say what it is, and if I did I should probably destroy it by the mere fact of putting it into words.

What is your favorite flower?

Hers - but apart from that, all

What are your favorite names?

I only have one at a time

Sounds like someone is a romantic (not exactly shocking). Here though, we have direct evidence that Proust was a player:

What is your favorite occupation?

Loving

I think we can all agree on that. Finally evidence that people saw these questionaires in the same light in the 1890s as many of us do now:

What is your present state of mind?

Annoyance at having to think about myself in order to answer these questions

Hear hear.
I'm going to go send off one of the ones Proust filled out to see what kind of responses people give.
s.