RUSKIN (John) & PROUST (Marcel). Sesame and the Lilies. Treasures of kings. Of the gardens of queens. Translation, notes and preface by Marcel Proust. Paris, Mercure de France, 1906. In-12 ivory half-chagrin with corners, spine ribbed, gilt title, date at the end, gilt head, cover preserved, in half-chagr. folder and slipcase with edges (Flammarion-Vaillant). First edition of Proust's translation. N°283. A good copy. Published in 1865 (under the title Sesame and Lilies), this work by the English essayist and art critic John Ruskin is the meeting of two lectures. In the first one, entitled The Treasures of Kings, Ruskin evokes the importance of reading, which he compares to a conversation with people who would have more interesting things to tell us than those whom we meet by chance. The second, The Queens' Gardens, is a plea for the education of young girls; Ruskin also discusses the place of women in the works of Shakespeare and Walter Scott. In his long preface entitled "On Reading", Marcel Proust evokes his childhood reading and challenges Ruskin's thesis: for him, reading is not a conversation, but consists on the contrary "in receiving communication of another thought, but while remaining alone, that is to say while continuing to enjoy the intellectual power that one has in solitude and that conversation dissipates immediately.