Proust’s aesthetics and critical method are, ultimately, not outside his work but are the very heart of his creation: “Proust will make this aesthetic into the real subject of his work” (p. 135). As in Hegel, the philosophical, critical, reflective conscious- ness is not only contained in the scrutiny given to the operations and works of history. What is first in question is the history of this con- sciousness itself. It would not be deceptive to say that this aesthetic, as a concept of the work in general, exactly overlaps Rousset’s.