The writing of Contre Sainte-Beuve and À la recherche du temps perdu was preceded by Marcel Proust’s translation of John Ruskin’s The Bible of Amiens (1884) and Sesame and Lilies (1865). After a close reading of these two translations, we conclude that Ruskin’s texts inspired Proust to construct the theory and aesthetic foundation of his future work. Indeed, the translation of Ruskin’s essays is part of the process of maturation that heralds À la recherche du temps perdu. This psychological process seems to occur as Proust aesthetically transfers content from the work of the English aesthete to his own. In this article, we endeavor to demonstrate that the theoretical framework of À la recherche du temps perdu is the direct result of Proust’s confrontation with these two works by Ruskin, although it is apparent that the creative process required certain modifications.