Finn's book also brings out the best in the modem biographies (Painter, Tadie) and foregrounds Proust's father-the famous professor of hygiene in the faculty of medicine in Paris, Dr Adrien Proust-in new light. Under this treatment, creative writing becomes more than the indulgence of desire or the rejuvenation of will. Cure of the disease of volition elevates neurasthenia to an aesthetic, when...