Gissing och Proust

George Gissing skriver i sin meditativa "The private papers of Henry Ryecroft" om hur, genom svårgripbara associationer, djupt dolda minnesbilder plötsligt kan dyka upp vid läsning. En tanke, en fras, kanske bara ett ord, fungerar som nyckel.

Och:

"If I am otherwise occupied, it must be an object seen, an odour, a touch; perhaps even a posture of the body suffices to recall something in the past. Sometimes the vision passes, and there an end; sometimes, however, it has successors, the memory working quite independently of my will, and no link appearing between one scene and the next."

... an odour ... the memory working quite independently of my will... 

Gissings bok kom 1903. Proust började, tror jag, skriva "På spaning efter den tid som flytt" 1909.